Explore the structural challenges of Ethereum in the RWA market and the rise of new tokenization platforms.
Written by: Chi Anh, Ryan Yoon, Tiger Research
Compiled by: AididiaoJP, Foresight News
Abstract
Thanks to its first-mover advantage, past institutional cases, deep on-chain liquidity, and decentralized architecture, Ethereum still holds a leading position in the RWA market.
Faster transaction speeds and lower costs of L1 blockchains, along with RWA dedicated chains designed for compliance, are addressing the limitations of Ethereum in terms of cost and performance. These emerging platforms are positioning themselves as the next generation of RWA infrastructure by offering superior technical scalability or built-in compliance features.
The key growth of RWA in the next phase will depend on three factors: on-chain regulatory compatibility, the service ecosystem built around real-world assets, and sufficient on-chain liquidity.
In which aspects is the RWA market currently developing?
The tokenization of real-world assets (RWA) has become one of the mainstream trends in the blockchain industry. Global consulting firms such as Boston Consulting Group (BCG) have released extensive market forecasts, and research from Tiger Research has found that the industry is increasingly growing in emerging markets such as Indonesia.
So, what exactly are RWAs? They refer to the conversion of tangible assets (such as real estate, bonds, and commodities) into digital tokens. The tokenization process is inevitably linked to blockchain infrastructure. Currently, Ethereum occupies a leading position among the infrastructures that support such tokenization.
Source: rwa.xyz, Tiger Research
Despite the increasing competition, Ethereum still maintains a dominant position in the RWA market. Currently, some RWA blockchains have emerged, and Solana, which has established a foothold in the DeFi space, is also expanding into the RWA sector. Nevertheless, Ethereum still holds over 50% of the market activity share, highlighting its solid market position.
This report examines the key factors that currently position Ethereum as a dominant force in the RWA market and explores the critical elements that may influence the next phase of growth and competition.
Why does Ethereum maintain its lead?
2.1. First-mover advantage and institutional trust
The reasons why Ethereum has become the default platform for institutional tokenization are evident. It pioneered the establishment of key tokenization smart contract standards and is actively preparing for the RWA market.
With the strong support of a highly active developer community, Ethereum established key tokenization standards such as ERC-1400 and ERC-3643 long before competing platforms emerged. This early foundation provided the necessary technical and regulatory basis for institutions to attempt RWA projects.
Many institutions need to prioritize assessing Ethereum before considering alternatives. Some significant initiatives by large financial firms or institutions have helped Ethereum become an important infrastructure for the RWA market:
JPMorgan's Quorum and JPM Coin (2016-2017): To support enterprise use cases, JPMorgan developed a permissioned fork of Ethereum called Quorum, while JPM Coin can be used for interbank transfers. This indicates that Ethereum's architecture can meet regulatory requirements for data protection and compliance even in a private form.
Societe Generale Bond Issuance (2019): Societe Generale FORGE issued €100 million of covered bonds on the Ethereum public mainnet. This demonstrates that regulated securities can be issued and settled on a public blockchain while minimizing the involvement of intermediaries.
European Investment Bank Digital Bond (2021): The European Investment Bank collaborated with Goldman Sachs, Santander Bank, and Société Générale to issue a €100 million digital bond on Ethereum. The bond is settled using the central bank digital currency (CBDC) issued by the French bank, highlighting the potential of Ethereum in fully integrated capital markets.
These successful pilot cases enhance the credibility of Ethereum. For institutions, trust is generated based on verified use cases and recommendations from other regulated participants. Ethereum continues to attract interest and forms a continually reinforcing adoption loop.
Source: Securitize
For example, in 2018, Securitize announced in official documents that it would build tools on Ethereum to manage the entire lifecycle of digital securities. This initiative laid the groundwork for BlackRock's eventual launch of BUIDL (currently the largest tokenized fund issued on Ethereum).
2.2. The continuous inflow of traditional capital into blockchain
Another key reason why Ethereum continues to dominate the RWA market is its ability to convert on-chain liquidity into actual purchasing power.
Tokenizing real-world assets is not just a technical process. A functioning market requires capital that can actively invest in and trade these assets. In this regard, Ethereum stands out and has become the only on-chain liquidity platform with depth and deployability.
Source: rwa.xyz, Arkham, Tiger Research
This is particularly evident on platforms such as Ondo, Spark, and Ethena, which hold a large amount of tokenized BUIDL funds on Ethereum. These platforms attract hundreds of millions of dollars in funding by offering products based on tokenized U.S. Treasury bonds, stablecoin lending, and synthetic yield-dollar tools.
Ondo Finance has accumulated a total locked value (TVL) of over 600 million USD through its government bond-backed products USDY and OUSG.
Spark Protocol utilizes the liquidity of MakerDAO's DAI to purchase over 2.4 billion dollars in government bonds.
Ethena has built a bankless yield infrastructure on Ethereum using its synthetic stablecoins USDe and sUSDe, attracting institutional demand and DeFi liquidity.
These examples indicate that Ethereum is not just a platform for asset tokenization. It provides a strong liquidity foundation that supports investments and asset management by large institutions or financial companies. In contrast, many emerging risk asset management platforms struggle to ensure a continuous inflow of funds or maintain active secondary market activity after the initial token issuance.
The reason for this difference is obvious. Ethereum has integrated stablecoins, DeFi protocols, and compliant infrastructure, creating a comprehensive financial environment that ensures issuance, trading, and settlement can all occur on-chain.
Therefore, Ethereum is the most efficient environment for converting tokenized assets into actual purchasing activities, which has also become a structural advantage of Ethereum.
2.3. Establishing a trust foundation through decentralization
Decentralization plays a crucial role in establishing trust. Tokenization of real-world assets requires transferring the ownership and transaction records of high-value assets onto the chain. In this process, institutions focus on the system's reliability and transparency. This is precisely where the unique advantage of Ethereum's decentralized architecture lies.
Ethereum is a public chain backed by thousands of independently running nodes around the world. The network is open to everyone, and all changes are decided by participant consensus rather than centralized control. As a result, it avoids single points of failure, is resistant to hacking and censorship, and maintains uninterrupted uptime.
In the RWA market, this structure creates tangible value. Transactions are recorded on an immutable ledger, thereby reducing the risk of fraud. Smart contracts enable trustless transactions without intermediaries. Users can access services, sign agreements, and participate in financial activities without centralized approval.
The characteristics such as transparency, security, and accessibility make Ethereum an ideal choice for institutions exploring asset tokenization. Its decentralized system meets the key requirements for operating in high-risk financial environments.
Emerging challengers reshape the landscape
Ethereum makes tokenization finance feasible. However, it also exposes some structural limitations that hinder broader institutional adoption. These barriers mainly include limited transaction throughput, latency issues, and unpredictable fee structures.
To address these challenges, Layer 2 rollup solutions such as Arbitrum, Optimism, and Polygon zkEVM have emerged. Major upgrades, including Merge (2022), Dencun (2024), and the already launched Pectra (2025), have boosted Ethereum's scalability. However, the network is still not able to surpass the traditional financial infrastructure. Visa, for example, processes more than 65,000 transactions per second, while Ethereum has yet to reach that level. These performance gaps remain a key constraint for institutions that require high-frequency trading or real-time settlement.
Delays and final confirmations also pose challenges. Block generation takes an average of 12 seconds, and with the additional confirmations required for secure settlement, final confirmation can often take up to three minutes. In cases of network congestion, delays may be further exacerbated, presenting challenges for time-sensitive financial transactions.
Moreover, the volatility of Gas fees is concerning. During peak times, the transaction fees exceed 50 dollars, and even under normal circumstances, the fees often exceed 20 dollars. This uncertainty in fees complicates business planning and may undermine the competitiveness of Ethereum-based services.
Securitize is an example. After encountering the limitations of Ethereum, the company expanded to other platforms such as Solana and Polygon, while also developing its own blockchain, Converage. Although Ethereum played a crucial role in early institutional experiments, it now faces increasing pressure to urgently meet the demands of a more mature and performance-sensitive market.
3.1. A high-throughput and economically efficient general-purpose blockchain is emerging.
As the limitations of Ethereum become increasingly apparent, more and more institutions are exploring general blockchains that can replace Ethereum. These platforms can address the key performance bottlenecks of Ethereum, especially in terms of transaction speed, fee stability, and finality time.
Source: rwa.xyz, Tiger Research
Despite ongoing collaboration with institutional investors, the actual scale of tokenized assets (excluding stablecoins) on these platforms is still far below that of Ethereum. In many cases, tokenized assets launched on general-purpose chains are still part of a multi-chain deployment strategy dominated by Ethereum.
Even so, there are still some signs that emerging platforms have made meaningful progress. In the private credit sector, new tokenization solutions are emerging. For example, on zkSync, the Tradable platform has gained attention, capturing over 18% of the active share in the field, second only to Ethereum.
At this stage, general-purpose blockchains are just beginning to establish themselves. Platforms like Solana have already achieved rapid growth in their DeFi ecosystem and now face a strategic question: how to convert this momentum into a sustainable position in the RWA space. Simply having excellent technical performance is not enough. Solana needs to meet the trust and compliance expectations of institutional investors.
Ultimately, the success of these blockchains in the RWA market will no longer depend on original throughput, but more on the ability to provide tangible value. The differentiated ecosystems built around the unique advantages of each chain will determine their long-term positioning in this emerging field.
3.2. The Emergence of RWA Dedicated Blockchains
More and more blockchain platforms are abandoning universal design in favor of focusing on specific areas. This trend is also evident in the RWA field, where a new wave of RWA-specific chains is emerging, optimized specifically for the tokenization of real-world assets.
Source: Tiger Research
The concept of RWA dedicated blockchains is very clear. Tokenizing real-world assets requires direct integration with existing financial regulations, which in many cases makes the use of general blockchain infrastructure inadequate. RWA dedicated blockchains need to fundamentally address specific technical requirements, especially in terms of regulatory compliance.
Compliance handling is a key area. KYC and AML procedures are essential for tokenization workflows, but these procedures are often handled off-chain. This approach merely wraps traditional financial assets in a blockchain format without redesigning the underlying compliance logic.
The current transformation lies in the ability to fully put these compliance functions on-chain. The demand for blockchain networks is growing, as these networks can not only record ownership but also natively execute regulatory requirements at the protocol level.
Some blockchains focused on RWA have started to offer on-chain compliance modules. For example, MANTRA includes decentralized identity (DID) functionality, supporting compliance execution at the infrastructure layer. Other RWA-specific blockchains are expected to take similar initiatives.
In addition to compliance, many platforms also target specific asset classes and strategically position themselves with deep domain expertise. Maple Finance focuses on institutional lending and asset management, Centrifuge specializes in trade financing, and Polymesh is dedicated to regulated securities. These blockchains do not tokenize widely held assets such as sovereign bonds or stablecoins, but rather adopt vertical specialization as a competitive strategy.
Nevertheless, many platforms are still in their early stages. Some platforms have yet to launch their mainnet, and most platforms remain limited in scale and adoption. If general-purpose chains are just beginning to gain attention in the RWA field, specialized chains are still at the starting line.
Who will replace Ethereum in the RWA market?
Ethereum's dominant position in the RWA market is unlikely to be maintained. Currently, the tokenization asset market is less than 2% of its expected size, indicating that the industry is still in its early stages. Ethereum's advantages so far largely stem from its early product-market fit (PMF). As the market matures and scales, the competitive landscape will undergo significant changes.
The signs of this transformation have already emerged, as institutions are no longer focusing solely on Ethereum. Other general-purpose blockchains and RWA-specific blockchains are undergoing market testing, and more services are exploring custom chain deployments. Tokenized assets initially issued on Ethereum are now expanding into a multi-chain ecosystem, breaking the previous monopoly.
A key turning point will be the implementation of on-chain compliance. For blockchain finance to truly embody innovation, regulatory processes such as KYC and AML must take place directly on-chain. If the professional chain can successfully deliver scalable protocol-level compliance and drive industry-wide adoption, the current market landscape could be completely upended.
Equally important is real purchasing power. Only when there is active capital willing to buy tokenized assets will they have investment value. Regardless of the technology, the utility of tokenization is limited without efficient liquidity. Therefore, the next-generation RWA platform must build a robust service ecosystem based on tokenized assets and ensure that users have sufficient liquidity to participate in it.
In short, the next leading RWA platform is likely to achieve the following three goals simultaneously:
Fully integrated on-chain compliance framework
Service ecosystem built on tokenized assets
Deep and sustainable liquidity ensures real purchasing power
The RWA market is still in its infancy, and those platforms that can provide excellent solutions will replace Ethereum to dominate: platforms that can meet institutional needs while unlocking new value in the tokenization economy.
The content is for reference only, not a solicitation or offer. No investment, tax, or legal advice provided. See Disclaimer for more risks disclosure.
Who will replace Ethereum's dominance in the RWA market?
Written by: Chi Anh, Ryan Yoon, Tiger Research
Compiled by: AididiaoJP, Foresight News
Abstract
In which aspects is the RWA market currently developing?
The tokenization of real-world assets (RWA) has become one of the mainstream trends in the blockchain industry. Global consulting firms such as Boston Consulting Group (BCG) have released extensive market forecasts, and research from Tiger Research has found that the industry is increasingly growing in emerging markets such as Indonesia.
So, what exactly are RWAs? They refer to the conversion of tangible assets (such as real estate, bonds, and commodities) into digital tokens. The tokenization process is inevitably linked to blockchain infrastructure. Currently, Ethereum occupies a leading position among the infrastructures that support such tokenization.
Source: rwa.xyz, Tiger Research
Despite the increasing competition, Ethereum still maintains a dominant position in the RWA market. Currently, some RWA blockchains have emerged, and Solana, which has established a foothold in the DeFi space, is also expanding into the RWA sector. Nevertheless, Ethereum still holds over 50% of the market activity share, highlighting its solid market position.
This report examines the key factors that currently position Ethereum as a dominant force in the RWA market and explores the critical elements that may influence the next phase of growth and competition.
Why does Ethereum maintain its lead?
2.1. First-mover advantage and institutional trust
The reasons why Ethereum has become the default platform for institutional tokenization are evident. It pioneered the establishment of key tokenization smart contract standards and is actively preparing for the RWA market.
With the strong support of a highly active developer community, Ethereum established key tokenization standards such as ERC-1400 and ERC-3643 long before competing platforms emerged. This early foundation provided the necessary technical and regulatory basis for institutions to attempt RWA projects.
Many institutions need to prioritize assessing Ethereum before considering alternatives. Some significant initiatives by large financial firms or institutions have helped Ethereum become an important infrastructure for the RWA market:
JPMorgan's Quorum and JPM Coin (2016-2017): To support enterprise use cases, JPMorgan developed a permissioned fork of Ethereum called Quorum, while JPM Coin can be used for interbank transfers. This indicates that Ethereum's architecture can meet regulatory requirements for data protection and compliance even in a private form.
Societe Generale Bond Issuance (2019): Societe Generale FORGE issued €100 million of covered bonds on the Ethereum public mainnet. This demonstrates that regulated securities can be issued and settled on a public blockchain while minimizing the involvement of intermediaries.
European Investment Bank Digital Bond (2021): The European Investment Bank collaborated with Goldman Sachs, Santander Bank, and Société Générale to issue a €100 million digital bond on Ethereum. The bond is settled using the central bank digital currency (CBDC) issued by the French bank, highlighting the potential of Ethereum in fully integrated capital markets.
These successful pilot cases enhance the credibility of Ethereum. For institutions, trust is generated based on verified use cases and recommendations from other regulated participants. Ethereum continues to attract interest and forms a continually reinforcing adoption loop.
Source: Securitize
For example, in 2018, Securitize announced in official documents that it would build tools on Ethereum to manage the entire lifecycle of digital securities. This initiative laid the groundwork for BlackRock's eventual launch of BUIDL (currently the largest tokenized fund issued on Ethereum).
2.2. The continuous inflow of traditional capital into blockchain
Another key reason why Ethereum continues to dominate the RWA market is its ability to convert on-chain liquidity into actual purchasing power.
Tokenizing real-world assets is not just a technical process. A functioning market requires capital that can actively invest in and trade these assets. In this regard, Ethereum stands out and has become the only on-chain liquidity platform with depth and deployability.
Source: rwa.xyz, Arkham, Tiger Research
This is particularly evident on platforms such as Ondo, Spark, and Ethena, which hold a large amount of tokenized BUIDL funds on Ethereum. These platforms attract hundreds of millions of dollars in funding by offering products based on tokenized U.S. Treasury bonds, stablecoin lending, and synthetic yield-dollar tools.
These examples indicate that Ethereum is not just a platform for asset tokenization. It provides a strong liquidity foundation that supports investments and asset management by large institutions or financial companies. In contrast, many emerging risk asset management platforms struggle to ensure a continuous inflow of funds or maintain active secondary market activity after the initial token issuance.
The reason for this difference is obvious. Ethereum has integrated stablecoins, DeFi protocols, and compliant infrastructure, creating a comprehensive financial environment that ensures issuance, trading, and settlement can all occur on-chain.
Therefore, Ethereum is the most efficient environment for converting tokenized assets into actual purchasing activities, which has also become a structural advantage of Ethereum.
2.3. Establishing a trust foundation through decentralization
Decentralization plays a crucial role in establishing trust. Tokenization of real-world assets requires transferring the ownership and transaction records of high-value assets onto the chain. In this process, institutions focus on the system's reliability and transparency. This is precisely where the unique advantage of Ethereum's decentralized architecture lies.
Ethereum is a public chain backed by thousands of independently running nodes around the world. The network is open to everyone, and all changes are decided by participant consensus rather than centralized control. As a result, it avoids single points of failure, is resistant to hacking and censorship, and maintains uninterrupted uptime.
In the RWA market, this structure creates tangible value. Transactions are recorded on an immutable ledger, thereby reducing the risk of fraud. Smart contracts enable trustless transactions without intermediaries. Users can access services, sign agreements, and participate in financial activities without centralized approval.
The characteristics such as transparency, security, and accessibility make Ethereum an ideal choice for institutions exploring asset tokenization. Its decentralized system meets the key requirements for operating in high-risk financial environments.
Emerging challengers reshape the landscape
Ethereum makes tokenization finance feasible. However, it also exposes some structural limitations that hinder broader institutional adoption. These barriers mainly include limited transaction throughput, latency issues, and unpredictable fee structures.
To address these challenges, Layer 2 rollup solutions such as Arbitrum, Optimism, and Polygon zkEVM have emerged. Major upgrades, including Merge (2022), Dencun (2024), and the already launched Pectra (2025), have boosted Ethereum's scalability. However, the network is still not able to surpass the traditional financial infrastructure. Visa, for example, processes more than 65,000 transactions per second, while Ethereum has yet to reach that level. These performance gaps remain a key constraint for institutions that require high-frequency trading or real-time settlement.
Delays and final confirmations also pose challenges. Block generation takes an average of 12 seconds, and with the additional confirmations required for secure settlement, final confirmation can often take up to three minutes. In cases of network congestion, delays may be further exacerbated, presenting challenges for time-sensitive financial transactions.
Moreover, the volatility of Gas fees is concerning. During peak times, the transaction fees exceed 50 dollars, and even under normal circumstances, the fees often exceed 20 dollars. This uncertainty in fees complicates business planning and may undermine the competitiveness of Ethereum-based services.
Securitize is an example. After encountering the limitations of Ethereum, the company expanded to other platforms such as Solana and Polygon, while also developing its own blockchain, Converage. Although Ethereum played a crucial role in early institutional experiments, it now faces increasing pressure to urgently meet the demands of a more mature and performance-sensitive market.
3.1. A high-throughput and economically efficient general-purpose blockchain is emerging.
As the limitations of Ethereum become increasingly apparent, more and more institutions are exploring general blockchains that can replace Ethereum. These platforms can address the key performance bottlenecks of Ethereum, especially in terms of transaction speed, fee stability, and finality time.
Source: rwa.xyz, Tiger Research
Despite ongoing collaboration with institutional investors, the actual scale of tokenized assets (excluding stablecoins) on these platforms is still far below that of Ethereum. In many cases, tokenized assets launched on general-purpose chains are still part of a multi-chain deployment strategy dominated by Ethereum.
Even so, there are still some signs that emerging platforms have made meaningful progress. In the private credit sector, new tokenization solutions are emerging. For example, on zkSync, the Tradable platform has gained attention, capturing over 18% of the active share in the field, second only to Ethereum.
At this stage, general-purpose blockchains are just beginning to establish themselves. Platforms like Solana have already achieved rapid growth in their DeFi ecosystem and now face a strategic question: how to convert this momentum into a sustainable position in the RWA space. Simply having excellent technical performance is not enough. Solana needs to meet the trust and compliance expectations of institutional investors.
Ultimately, the success of these blockchains in the RWA market will no longer depend on original throughput, but more on the ability to provide tangible value. The differentiated ecosystems built around the unique advantages of each chain will determine their long-term positioning in this emerging field.
3.2. The Emergence of RWA Dedicated Blockchains
More and more blockchain platforms are abandoning universal design in favor of focusing on specific areas. This trend is also evident in the RWA field, where a new wave of RWA-specific chains is emerging, optimized specifically for the tokenization of real-world assets.
Source: Tiger Research
The concept of RWA dedicated blockchains is very clear. Tokenizing real-world assets requires direct integration with existing financial regulations, which in many cases makes the use of general blockchain infrastructure inadequate. RWA dedicated blockchains need to fundamentally address specific technical requirements, especially in terms of regulatory compliance.
Compliance handling is a key area. KYC and AML procedures are essential for tokenization workflows, but these procedures are often handled off-chain. This approach merely wraps traditional financial assets in a blockchain format without redesigning the underlying compliance logic.
The current transformation lies in the ability to fully put these compliance functions on-chain. The demand for blockchain networks is growing, as these networks can not only record ownership but also natively execute regulatory requirements at the protocol level.
Some blockchains focused on RWA have started to offer on-chain compliance modules. For example, MANTRA includes decentralized identity (DID) functionality, supporting compliance execution at the infrastructure layer. Other RWA-specific blockchains are expected to take similar initiatives.
In addition to compliance, many platforms also target specific asset classes and strategically position themselves with deep domain expertise. Maple Finance focuses on institutional lending and asset management, Centrifuge specializes in trade financing, and Polymesh is dedicated to regulated securities. These blockchains do not tokenize widely held assets such as sovereign bonds or stablecoins, but rather adopt vertical specialization as a competitive strategy.
Nevertheless, many platforms are still in their early stages. Some platforms have yet to launch their mainnet, and most platforms remain limited in scale and adoption. If general-purpose chains are just beginning to gain attention in the RWA field, specialized chains are still at the starting line.
Who will replace Ethereum in the RWA market?
Ethereum's dominant position in the RWA market is unlikely to be maintained. Currently, the tokenization asset market is less than 2% of its expected size, indicating that the industry is still in its early stages. Ethereum's advantages so far largely stem from its early product-market fit (PMF). As the market matures and scales, the competitive landscape will undergo significant changes.
The signs of this transformation have already emerged, as institutions are no longer focusing solely on Ethereum. Other general-purpose blockchains and RWA-specific blockchains are undergoing market testing, and more services are exploring custom chain deployments. Tokenized assets initially issued on Ethereum are now expanding into a multi-chain ecosystem, breaking the previous monopoly.
A key turning point will be the implementation of on-chain compliance. For blockchain finance to truly embody innovation, regulatory processes such as KYC and AML must take place directly on-chain. If the professional chain can successfully deliver scalable protocol-level compliance and drive industry-wide adoption, the current market landscape could be completely upended.
Equally important is real purchasing power. Only when there is active capital willing to buy tokenized assets will they have investment value. Regardless of the technology, the utility of tokenization is limited without efficient liquidity. Therefore, the next-generation RWA platform must build a robust service ecosystem based on tokenized assets and ensure that users have sufficient liquidity to participate in it.
In short, the next leading RWA platform is likely to achieve the following three goals simultaneously:
The RWA market is still in its infancy, and those platforms that can provide excellent solutions will replace Ethereum to dominate: platforms that can meet institutional needs while unlocking new value in the tokenization economy.