RWA Market Faces a $75 Billion Problem as Blockchains Fail to Connect: Report

New research from RWA.io warns that fragmentation across blockchain networks is quietly draining value from the fast-growing market for tokenized real-world assets, imposing costs that could scale into the tens of billions of dollars if left unresolved.

In its latest report, State of RWA Tokenization 2026, the global real-world asset (RWA) hub estimates that inefficiencies caused by disconnected blockchains are already eroding between $600 million and $1.3 billion in annual value across today’s roughly $36 billion RWA market. Looking ahead, if the same structural frictions persist as the sector expands toward an estimated $16 trillion to $30 trillion by 2030, the annual value drag could swell to between $30 billion and $75 billion.

The analysis draws on quantified price discrepancies and capital movement costs observed across chains and was produced with input from 17 industry participants, including Coinbase, Franklin Templeton, Polygon, Chainlink Labs, Cosmos, TRON DAO, Ondo Finance, and Digital Asset.

Market Growth Outpaces Infrastructure

According to the report, the tokenized RWA market reached $36.27 billion as of November 2025, marking a 2,200% increase since 2020. More than 500,000 unique asset holders now participate in the sector, with participation rising 11% in November alone.

Private credit represents the largest segment, accounting for $19.1 billion, or 52.7% of the total market, followed by tokenized securities at $9.0 billion, or 24.8%. However, this value is spread across a patchwork of largely isolated blockchain ecosystems. Ethereum hosts roughly 52% of all tokenized RWA value, while Polygon has emerged as a dominant venue for tokenized bonds, representing about 62% of global issuance.

Also read: Tokenized RWAs Poised to Hit $2 Trillion by 2028, Says Standard Chartered

Marko Vidrih, co-founder and chief operating officer at RWA.io, said the mismatch between market growth and infrastructure maturity has become the sector’s primary bottleneck.

“This fragmentation is the single greatest impediment to the market realizing its multi-trillion-dollar potential,” Vidrih said. “In traditional finance, the EU-wide SEPA Instant mandate shows how value can move across accounts in seconds. Tokenized assets should be just as frictionless.”

The Economic Cost Of Fragmentation

The report details how network silos create measurable inefficiencies. 

Identical assets often trade at price differences of 1% to 3% across chains because arbitrage is too expensive or operationally complex. Moving capital between networks typically costs investors 2% to 5% per transaction once fees and slippage are accounted for.

Beyond direct costs, fragmentation limits innovation. Assets issued on one chain frequently cannot interact with applications on another, restricting the development of more advanced financial products and deeper cross-market liquidity.

When those factors are aggregated, RWA.io estimates they translate into hundreds of millions of dollars in lost value today, with the potential to balloon dramatically as the market scales.

Security Risks Undermine Institutional Confidence

The research also highlights a sharp rise in operational risks. 

On-chain failures such as private key compromises, smart contract misconfigurations, bridge exploits, and oracle manipulation have become the dominant threat vectors for the sector.

Financial losses linked to those issues rose 143% in the first half of 2025 compared with all of 2024, according to the report. This combination of fragmented infrastructure and increasing technical complexity, it argues, is beginning to undermine institutional confidence at a critical moment when adoption is accelerating.

Building A Unified Interoperability Stack

To address those challenges, the report calls for urgent coordination across blockchains, standards bodies, and institutions to establish a unified interoperability stack. 

The proposed framework combines transport protocols such as Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) and Cosmos’ Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) with standardized service layers and intelligent orchestration.

The architecture is designed to support seamless data transport, cross-chain messaging, payments, identity, and compliance, enabling assets to move and interact freely across networks. RWA.io describes this as an “internet of blockchains” that restores composability and user choice while improving liquidity and security.

Sharif Bouktila, co-founder and chief executive officer of Defactor, compared the moment to the adoption of Electronic Data Interchange standards in global trade. “Adoption of EDI didn’t just digitize supply chains — it rewired global commerce by giving every company a shared language,” he said.

Payments are highlighted as a foundational layer. Kevin Leffew, go-to-market lead at the Coinbase Developer Platform, said standardized on-chain payments are essential to unlocking machine-to-machine finance and deeper liquidity across RWA markets.

A Roadmap Toward A Multi-Trillion-Dollar Market

The report concludes with a phased roadmap through 2030, forecasting foundational protocol adoption by 2025, widespread integration by 2027, and rapid market acceleration toward the end of the decade. By then, AI agents are expected to autonomously manage multi-chain RWA portfolios as the market surpasses $10 trillion.

Also read: RWA Market Expansion Shows Path to $30 Trillion by 2030

RWA.io argues that solving interoperability is no longer optional. It is, the report concludes, the central requirement for unlocking the sector’s projected $16 trillion to $30 trillion potential by 2030.