Arrakis research reveals tokenized dollar-yield product adoption across 71,697 buyers and $91.3B in acquisitions, with composition skewed toward crypto-native participants.
RWA & Tokenization ·
Arrakis Finance research examining buyer behavior across ten tokenised dollar-yield products found that 71,697 buyers have acquired $91.3 billion in onchain value, but the composition reveals a market shaped overwhelmingly by crypto-native institutions rather than traditional finance. The analysis traced activity using Ethena's sUSDe as a benchmark and identified approximately $12.4 billion in demand across recognizable buyer categories, with roughly two-thirds stemming from protocol and DAO treasuries, the remainder split among individuals, exchanges, market makers and crypto funds. No single allocation could be clearly attributed to a pension fund, bank or traditional asset manager.
Concentration among institutional-sized buyers—those holding or acquiring at least $1 million—was pronounced: these wallets represented only around 4% of all buyers yet controlled approximately 93% of acquired capital. The buyer base includes crypto foundations, protocol treasuries, family offices, exchanges and specialist funds already operating onchain and familiar with wallet management, stablecoins and smart-contract risk. Retail activity, while appearing substantial by wallet count, remains marginal by capital value; Ondo's USDY was approximately 95.6% retail by buyer count but retail wallets held less than 1% of acquired value.
The research suggests that RWA marketing narratives focused on mass retail adoption or imminent traditional finance participation may misread current demand dynamics. Instead, issuers primarily serve a small group of sophisticated, institutional-sized buyers already native to blockchain infrastructure. Whether this composition reflects the current early stage of tokenised asset adoption or a durable market structure remains unexamined in the available findings.