$16-30 Trillion by 2030: Unlocking the RWA Opportunity 

The Rising Tide: RWA Growth in 2025

The real world asset tokenization market is no longer a niche experiment. It is growing explosively. In the first half of 2025 alone, the RWA market jumped more than 260%, from about $8.6 billion to over $23 billion. By Q2 2025, that figure reached over $25 billion, according to Investax’s RWA Tokenization Report, representing a 245 fold increase since 2020. 

Institutionally, private credit is emerging as the largest segment, accounting for over half of current tokenized value. Analysts project that tokenization could escalate into a multi trillion dollar market over the next decade, with estimates ranging from $16 trillion by 2030(per Boston Consulting Group (BCG) + ADDX) to up to $30 trillion under more aggressive scenarios. Ripple and BCG, for example, project an $18.9 trillion tokenized asset market by 2033.

In conservative forecasts, BCG sees tokenized assets reaching $16 trillion by 2030, which would represent nearly 10% of global GDP. McKinsey offers more modest baselines, projecting between $2 trillion and $4 trillion in tokenized value by decade’s end. 

Thus, whether in the tens of trillions or modest trillions, consensus is clear: RWA is scaling fast.

Bitcoin Today: A Base for Comparison

Bitcoin remains the marquee asset in crypto, with a market cap in the trillions. But the scale of capital locked in BTC pales in comparison to even conservative RWA forecasts.

While Bitcoin offers scarcity and store of value properties, by design it lacks the native infrastructure to absorb large volumes of yield driven capital. Because of that, over 60% of BTC has not moved in more than one year, reflecting an enormous amount of idle capital. The challenge is how to turn that capital into productive value.

In this context, even if a small fraction of RWA market flows through Bitcoin native rails, that would represent hundreds of billions flowing into on-chain activity, strengthening fee markets, increasing infrastructure utilization, and elevating Bitcoin’s role beyond store of value.

Challenges on the Path Forward

Tokenization, however promising, is not without friction. A recent academic paper titled “Tokenize Everything, But Can You Sell It?” highlights that most RWA tokens suffer low liquidity, long holding periods, and limited secondary trading. Barriers include regulatory gating, valuation opacity, custodial concentration, whitelist constraints, and lack of decentralized, compliant markets.

Additionally, technical complexity emerges when tokenized assets attempt to operate across multiple chains. A recent framework, xRWA, proposes architectures for cross chain settlement without redundancies or reauthentication.

Despite these hurdles, momentum is strong. Institutions like Goldman Sachs and BNY Mellon are experimenting with tokenized money market funds, signaling mainstream interest in bridging DeFi and TradFi.

Mintlayer’s Role: Building the Bridge and Counting Down

At Mintlayer, we believe the future lies in connecting Bitcoin with real world yield. Not via wrapped tokens or custodians, but through native cross chain swaps, staking, tokenization, and secure rails.

We are positioning for day 10 of countdown, with a major announcement coming in the RWA space. This next phase is more than just Bitcoin interoperability. Our roadmap includes expansion into stablecoins and multi network support, enabling yield opportunities beyond Bitcoin alone.

If even a fraction of projected RWA flows route through Bitcoin native infrastructure, the implications are massive. New demand for block space, deeper liquidity, and stronger economic primitives for Bitcoin DeFi.

Stay tuned. October 13 marks a turning point.

Sources:
https://cointelegraph.com/news/rwa-token-market-bitcoin-adoption-2025
https://www.investax.io/blog/q2-2025-rwa-tokenization-market-report
https://www.ainvest.com/news/tokenized-real-world-assets-market-surges-260-h1-2025-2506/
https://www.ledgerinsights.com/bcg-addx-estimate-asset-tokenization-to-reach-16-trillion-by-2030/
https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2025/04/07/ripple-bcg-project-usd18-9t-tokenized-asset-market-by-2033-but-obstacles-remain
https://www.ledgerinsights.com/bcg-addx-estimate-asset-tokenization-to-reach-16-trillion
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.11651
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asset_tokenization
https://www.investopedia.com/bny-mellon-and-goldman-sachs-step-into-tokenized-money-market-funds-11777455
https://www.investopedia.com/bny-mellon-and-goldman-sachs-step-into-tokenized-money-market-funds-11777455  

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