Only 12% of tokenized real-world assets are actually deployed in DeFi, data shows
RWA & Tokenization ·
A breakdown of $29 billion in active real-world assets finds that most tokenized value sits idle, with private credit far outperforming bonds and treasuries in actual on-chain utilization.
Data compiled and shared in an analysis on X puts total active RWAs at $29B, of which $3.5B is deployed into DeFi, a utilization rate of 12%. Bonds and T-bills make up the largest slice of the market at $17B, yet only 5% of that value is being reused across DeFi protocols, suggesting a large share of tokenized fixed-income assets remains parked rather than put to work.
Private credit tells a different story. Of $3.3B active in that category, $1.8B is deployed, a 54% utilization rate — more than ten times the reuse rate seen in bonds and T-bills. The analysis ties this capital to receivables, private credit arrangements, and working capital financing for operating businesses, rather than passive holdings.
The gap between headline tokenization figures and actual usage is echoed elsewhere in the broader RWA narrative. One estimate places total tokenization notional value at $345B, while noting that real liquidity is constrained by the state of underlying live markets and issuer redemption windows, with dislocations emerging when either breaks down. Separately, tokenization activity spanning stablecoins, funds, commodities, and stocks has been described as accelerating on BNB Chain, accompanied by rising trading volume on spot decentralized exchanges.
Against this backdrop, a partnership between Zig and ADI is framed as addressing the funding and settlement gap directly. Under the arrangement, ZIGChain originates and distributes the underlying products, while ADI supplies stablecoin-native settlement infrastructure — pairing asset origination with the rails needed to move capital toward those assets, according to the same analysis.
The material argues that tokenization has already demonstrated assets can exist on-chain, and that the next phase of growth depends on whether tokenized assets can be funded, settled, and actively used rather than simply issued. What remains unclear is how utilization rates are calculated across the broader $345B tokenization figure, and whether infrastructure efforts like Zig and ADI's will measurably shift the 12% overall utilization rate or the 5% figure specific to bonds and T-bills. No timeline for measuring that impact has been disclosed.