The ecosystem of tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) showed accelerated expansion in 2026, with new highs across several cryptocurrency networks and growing integration into DeFi lending markets, according to data released May 1 by the RWA Foundation.
Growth is concentrated in several major networks. Solana leads with 2.5 billion dollars in RWA and nearly 200,000 holders, consolidating itself as one of the most active infrastructures in the sector. A milestone that marks a massive jump, from the $215 million recorded a year ago. On the other hand, Stellar surpasses $2.1 billion after a 10% increase in holders, while Avalanche reaches $1.4 billion with approximately $100 million in recent growth. Polygon, for its part, is approaching $1.5 billion with an increase of close to 10% in its tokenized asset category. In parallel, the ecosystem shows a strong concentration of users in specialized networks. Plume Network registers around 257,000 holders, the largest number within the RWA sector, although with a total value close to 400 million dollars. Beyond the growth in numbers, in DeFi approximately $2.7 billion in RWAs are already actively used in lending markets, integrated into protocols such as Aave, Morpho or Kamino Finance. In these environments, Credit assets account for up to 80% of RWA depositsconsolidating itself as the main engine of performance. The following graph shows that RWA growth has accelerated strongly since 2025showing a vertical rise in 2026 that took the market value from $5 billion to almost $30 billion. This technical leap is primarily driven by the tokenization of traditional financial instruments, such as private credit, which now dominate the ecosystem above other assets.
RWAs have experienced notable growth in recent months, thanks to the push from financial institutions. Source: DefiLlama. The total supply of stablecoins—also considered RWA—exceeds $320 billion, while Tokenized Treasuries remain a major underlying categoryespecially in Solana, where they represent more than 90% of RWA excluding stablecoins. It is worth highlighting that recent regulatory advances, together with the progressive entry of institutions, have accelerated the tokenization of traditional assetsexpanding the use of RWAs as collateral within DeFi, as reported by BitcoinDynamic. The sector thus enters a phase in which tokenization stops being just a growth metric and becomes directly integrated into the credit infrastructure of decentralized finance, where performance and risk begin to define its evolution.
