Cathie Wood's Ark Invest is projecting rapid growth in tokenized assets over the rest of the decade, estimating the market could surpass $11 trillion by 2030 as traditional financial instruments increasingly move onchain.
The real-world tokenized asset (RWA) market today stands at roughly $19–$22 billion, implying Ark's projection would require a roughly 50,000%–58,000% increase over the next five years.
"In our view, broad based adoption of tokenization is likely to follow the development of regulatory clarity and institutional-grade infrastructure," Ark Invest said in its "Big Ideas 2026" report published Wednesday.
A tokenized asset is a digital representation of a financial instrument that trades on a blockchain rather than through traditional brokerage infrastructure. Proponents argue that tokenization can reduce costs, shorten settlement times, deepen liquidity, support fractional ownership, and expand global access to financial products by enabling 24/7 trading.
Institutional Tokenization Efforts Ramp Up
Institutional momentum around tokenization has accelerated in recent weeks. Earlier this week, the New York Stock Exchange said it is building a blockchain-based venue to enable around-the-clock trading of tokenized stocks and exchange-traded funds, with plans to launch later this year pending regulatory approval.
Earlier today, F/m Investments, the firm behind the $6.3 billion U.S. Treasury 3-Month Bill ETF, said it has asked U.S. regulators for permission to record existing ETF shares on a blockchain. F/m Investments, founded in 2018, manages about $18 billion in assets.
Last week, custody bank State Street said it is rolling out a digital-asset platform to support money-market funds, ETFs, and cash products such as tokenized deposits and stablecoins. Around the same time, London Stock Exchange Group launched a Digital Settlement House designed to enable near-instant settlement across both blockchain-based and traditional payment systems.
Ark noted that sovereign debt, particularly U.S. Treasurys, currently dominates tokenized assets. However, the firm expects bank deposits and global public equities to account for a larger share of tokenized value over the next five years as institutions move beyond pilot programs.
At its projected $11 trillion size in 2030, Ark estimates tokenized assets would still represent only about 1.38% of total global financial assets. "With most global value still off-chain, traditional assets remain the largest growth opportunity for onchain adoption," the firm said.
Source: Ark Invest
Other major institutions and consultancies have also outlined multi-trillion-dollar outlooks for tokenization.
TD Cowen has said onchain assets could grow to as much as $100 trillion by 2030. The Boston Consulting Group, in a report published with Ripple, projects that tokenized assets could expand to nearly $19 trillion by 2033. Citi forecasts up to $4 trillion in tokenized digital securities, alongside as much as $5 trillion in central bank digital currencies circulating across major economies. Standard Chartered estimates tokenized real-world assets could reach $2 trillion by 2028, with the "vast majority" issued on Ethereum. McKinsey, meanwhile, projects tokenized real-world asset markets reaching $2 trillion to $4 trillion by the end of the decade.
Bitcoin Price Outlook
Ark Invest also projects a sharp expansion in crypto markets more broadly, with bitcoin expected to reach a market capitalization of around $16 trillion and the total crypto market growing to roughly $28 trillion by 2030.
A $16 trillion bitcoin market cap would imply a price of about $761,900 per BTC, assuming the fixed supply of 21 million coins. Bitcoin is currently trading around $90,000.
Comments
Join Our Community
Sign up to share your thoughts, engage with others, and become part of our growing community.
No comments yet
Be the first to share your thoughts and start the conversation!