RWA Sector TVL Surpasses DEX, Enters Top Five DeFi Verticals

BlockBeats News, December 29th, data shows that Real World Assets (RWA) have become one of the most prominent sectors driving DeFi growth in 2025. According to DefiLlama, the RWA sector has surged to become the fifth-largest category in DeFi by TVL, surpassing the DEX sector.

Currently, RWA TVL is around $17 billion, a significant increase from around $12 billion in the fourth quarter of 2024. DefiLlama points out that RWA was not even in the top ten tracks of DeFi at the beginning of the year, showing its rapid evolution from the edge of experimentation to the core infrastructure of DeFi.

Vincent Liu, Chief Investment Officer of Kronos Research, stated that RWA growth is mainly being driven by balance sheet demand rather than conceptual experimentation. In an environment of "higher rates for longer," tokenized US Treasuries and private credit have become attractive on-chain yield assets, while increased regulatory clarity has also reduced institutional entry friction.

Structurally, Ethereum remains the main battleground for RWA issuance and settlement, with public chains such as BNB Chain, Avalanche, Solana, Polygon, and Arbitrum accounting for a smaller share; meanwhile, permissioned networks like Canton Network dominate the institutional side.

Analysis believes that tokenized US Treasuries are still the core entry product for RWA, and as gold and silver prices strengthen, tokenized commodities are attracting more funds, with RWA expected to further move from the "yield narrative" to macro-level assets and neutral collateral in 2026.