Institutional adoption of real-world asset tokenization is moving beyond the simple act of putting traditional assets on blockchains and into a broader redesign of capital market infrastructure, according to a new report from Seoul-based Tiger Research.
The report says the next stage of tokenization is less about creating experimental digital products and more about rebuilding the systems that handle clearing, settlement, liquidity, collateral movement, and payments across regulated finance. That shift is important because these systems form the “plumbing” of global markets, determining how quickly assets change hands, how risk is managed, and how capital moves between institutions.
As of May 2026, onchain-issued real-world assets totaled about $34 billion, compared with roughly $1.5 billion in early 2020, according to data from rwa.xyz cited in the report. When represented assets are included — meaning assets whose ownership is recorded digitally while custody remains offline — the market value rises to nearly $360 billion.
Tiger Research said this growth shows that tokenization is no longer limited to small pilot programs. Instead, banks, asset managers, clearing houses, governments, and market infrastructure providers are testing or using blockchain-based systems in areas that sit at the core of financial markets.
The report, titled Below the surface: how Canton Network is reshaping capital market infrastructure, argues that institutional tokenization is entering a more serious phase. In this phase, the main goal is not novelty. It is faster settlement, lower operational risk, better collateral mobility, stronger privacy, and systems that can function across different institutions without relying on slow manual processes.
Tokenization moves deeper into market infrastructure
Tiger Research identified four areas where onchain infrastructure is already being used in institutional finance: short-term funding, securities settlement, capital raising, and payments.
In short-term funding, Broadridge’s Distributed Ledger Repo platform on the Canton Network processed $7.7 trillion in monthly settlements in April 2026. That was equal to an average of about $368 billion in daily settlement activity, according to the report.
Repo markets are a key part of the financial system because they allow institutions to borrow and lend cash against securities, often for very short periods. Moving parts of this market onto distributed ledger infrastructure could improve collateral tracking, reduce reconciliation work, and allow transactions to settle more quickly.
In securities settlement, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation has been working with Digital Asset after receiving a no-action letter from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in December 2025. The letter gave DTCC a regulatory path to continue developing tokenized securities infrastructure under existing securities laws for a limited period.
DTCC is now moving from planning to execution. Limited production trades involving tokenized Russell 1000 stocks, major ETFs, and U.S. Treasuries are beginning in July 2026, with a full commercial launch scheduled for October. More than 50 institutions are involved in the initiative, including BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Circle.
The securities settlement provider’s work is being closely watched because DTCC already sits at the center of the U.S. market structure. If tokenized settlement systems are adopted by core infrastructure providers, tokenization could become part of mainstream market operations rather than a separate digital-asset niche.
Government bonds and funds lead early growth
Tokenized U.S. government securities have become one of the fastest-growing real-world asset categories. Market data show that tokenized Treasury products have expanded sharply since early 2024, helped by demand for blockchain-based products that are backed by familiar, highly liquid government debt.
Reported figures vary depending on whether data providers count only onchain-issued securities, fund shares, represented assets, or broader tokenized exposures. Still, the direction is clear: tokenized Treasurys and government money-market-style products have become a central part of institutional tokenization.
The broader market for tokenized assets also continued to grow through 2026. The total value of onchain tokenized assets surpassed $33 billion by mid-June 2026, while data from May showed tokenized funds reaching about $32.4 billion. That figure more than doubled in four months, underscoring how quickly major financial firms have moved into the segment.
BlackRock’s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund, known as BUIDL, has become one of the main indicators of institutional demand for tokenized fund structures. Its assets under management had grown to about $2.8 billion by early July 2026. BlackRock’s May 8, 2026, filing for two additional tokenized funds suggested that the firm’s strategy has moved beyond testing and into wider product development.
Franklin Templeton has also been active in tokenized money market and Treasury products. On July 1, 2026, Tradeweb executed a real-time transaction of a tokenized U.S. Treasury from Franklin Templeton to Virtu Financial, settled against tokenized cash on the Canton Network. The transaction showed how tokenized assets and tokenized cash can be exchanged in a single process, reducing the settlement gap that exists in many traditional market workflows.
Governments test digital bond issuance
Capital raising is another area where tokenization has moved from theory to live issuance.
In February 2024, the Hong Kong government issued HKD 6 billion in digital green bonds through HSBC Orion. According to Tiger Research, the issuance reduced settlement time from T+5 to T+1 and enabled rapid use of the bonds in repo transactions.
That example is significant because sovereign and public-sector bond issuance is usually conservative. If governments can issue digital bonds in a way that shortens settlement and improves collateral use, private issuers may follow with similar structures.
Hong Kong has taken a leading role in testing digital bond infrastructure. The Canton Network has been integrated into the Central Moneymarkets Unit, which is managed by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. That integration points to a future in which tokenized bonds and traditional market infrastructure operate more closely together.
The report also points to growing activity in Japan and Korea. In Japan, JSCC, Nomura Holdings, and Mizuho Financial Group began a proof-of-concept involving government bonds. In Korea, institutional activity accelerated after securities token offering legislation passed in January 2026. Hanwha Investment & Securities partnered with Digital Asset, while Shinhan Asset Management, Shinhan Securities, and KB Securities signed agreements with the Canton Foundation in June 2026.
These developments show that Asia is becoming an important testing ground for regulated tokenization. The region’s financial centers are taking different approaches, but the common theme is the same: tokenized markets are being evaluated as part of regulated financial infrastructure, not only as digital-asset experiments.
Why regulated firms prefer permissioned networks
Tiger Research said regulated institutions need three core features before they can adopt blockchain-based market infrastructure at scale: transaction-level privacy, atomic settlement, and a public-permissioned structure that aligns with banking rules.
Transaction-level privacy is essential because banks and asset managers cannot expose sensitive trading positions, client information, or transaction details to the broader market. Public blockchains can offer transparency, but too much transparency can be a problem for institutional finance.
Atomic settlement is also important. It means that two sides of a transaction settle at the same time, reducing the risk that one side delivers an asset while the other side fails to deliver payment. In traditional markets, delays between trade execution and final settlement create operational and counterparty risk.
The third requirement is regulatory alignment. Under Basel Committee on Banking Supervision standards, banks face much heavier capital treatment when holding certain cryptoassets or assets on permissionless networks. Under BCBS Group 2, exposure to permissionless chains can carry risk weights of up to 1,250%. That makes many permissionless structures expensive for banks from a capital perspective.
This is one reason permissioned networks have attracted established financial institutions. They allow controlled participation, built-in compliance features, and privacy protections while still using distributed ledger technology.
Tiger Research used Canton Network as a case study for this model. Developed by Digital Asset with backing or involvement from firms such as JPMorgan, Citi, Goldman Sachs, and DTCC, Canton is designed to let only parties involved in a transaction validate the relevant details. The network embeds authorization and privacy within smart contracts and allows assets to settle instantly without relying on bridges between separate systems.
That design is meant to address several concerns that have slowed institutional use of public networks, including data exposure, regulatory uncertainty, and fragmentation across different blockchains.
Public blockchains still play a major role
While permissioned networks are gaining traction among banks and market infrastructure providers, public blockchains remain important in the tokenization market.
Ethereum hosted 56.5% of all tokenized funds as of May 2026, according to data cited in the report. Its large developer base, established smart contract standards, and existing digital-asset infrastructure have made it a common venue for tokenized fund products.
This creates a divided market structure. Regulated banks and large financial institutions may prefer permissioned systems because of privacy and capital requirements. Meanwhile, asset managers, fintech firms, and traders using public blockchain infrastructure may continue to build products on open networks such as Ethereum.
The result may not be a single dominant blockchain for real-world assets. Instead, the market could develop into multiple connected ecosystems, with different networks serving different types of assets, users, and regulatory needs.
Private credit becomes another growth area
Beyond government securities and money market products, private credit is emerging as a notable category for tokenization.
Private credit refers to lending outside public bond markets, often involving loans to businesses. It has grown into a large traditional finance market, with estimates placing the sector at about $1.6 trillion globally. Tokenization could make parts of this market more transparent, programmable, and accessible to a wider range of qualified traders.
Onchain private credit products can link digital tokens to real-world lending activity, creating yield based on business loans rather than purely digital market speculation. Supporters of the model say it could improve reporting, automate payment flows, and make loan ownership easier to transfer.
The risks remain significant. Private credit can be illiquid, difficult to value, and sensitive to economic downturns. Tokenization does not remove those risks. It changes how ownership and payments are recorded, but the quality of the underlying loans still matters.
A slow but structural shift
Yoon, head of the Tiger Research Center and author of the report, said capital market infrastructure changes slowly. He added that early adopters of new infrastructure can retain structural advantages because financial systems tend to become deeply embedded once they are adopted.
That view reflects the broader conclusion of the report: tokenization is not only about creating digital versions of bonds, funds, or loans. It is about changing how markets operate beneath the surface.
If clearing, settlement, collateral movement, and payments become programmable, financial institutions could reduce manual reconciliation, shorten settlement cycles, and use assets more efficiently across markets. The benefits may not always be visible to ordinary traders at first, but they could affect costs, liquidity, and risk management across the financial system.
Tiger Research said improving regulation, stronger market readiness, and steady institutional participation are creating better conditions for evaluating blockchain-based market systems. The report does not suggest that traditional infrastructure will disappear quickly. Instead, it points to a gradual transition in which tokenized systems are tested, integrated, and expanded where they show clear operational advantages.
Founded in 2022, Tiger Research produces regional digital-asset market research for more than 200 institutional clients and a subscriber base of more than 100,000 readers across Asia. Its latest study argues that the most important tokenization story may not be the assets themselves, but the market rails being built underneath them.
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