Standard Chartered Predict for tokenized RWA will reach $2 trillion by 2028

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Standard Chartered Bank has predicted that the market for tokenized real-world assets (RWA) will grow to an incredible $2 trillion by 2028. This is a huge 56-fold growth from the current estimated market size of about $35 billion. It could be the biggest merger of traditional banking and blockchain technology so far.

Geoffrey Kendrick, the Global Head of Digital Assets Research at Standard Chartered, wrote the paper. It shows how quickly the way stocks, bonds, and commodities are represented and traded is changing. This prediction shows that more and more institutions believe that blockchain technology has the power to change the way global finance works.

How Stablecoins Made It Possible

Kendrick says that the rapid rise of stablecoins has built the basic infrastructure needed for the RWA boom. He said in the paper that “stablecoins have paved the way through increased awareness, on-chain liquidity, and borrowing/lending capabilities.” These digital assets, which are linked to stable reserves like the U.S. dollar, have a market capitalization of more than $300 billion. They have also acted as a bridge between traditional finance and blockchain ecosystems.

Kendrick calls this foundation’s work a “self-sustaining cycle of DeFi growth,” where “liquidity begets new products, and new products beget new liquidity.” The stablecoin infrastructure that is already in place now lets other types of assets move to blockchain networks on a large scale. Money market funds and publicly traded stocks are leading the way.

Ethereum Still The Blockchain of Choice for Institutions

Standard Chartered sees Ethereum as the clear leader in the extremely competitive blockchain space when it comes to hosting most of the tokenization activity. The logic behind this forecast is closely related to what institutions care about.

Kendrick stressed that “Ethereum has operated without mainnet disruptions for over 10 years.” This demonstrated stability is more important than the prospective speed or cost advantages of emerging blockchain networks. When banks think about tokenizing billions of dollars’ worth of assets, network security and stability seem to be much more crucial than transaction costs or speed.

This endorsement is a big deal for Ethereum, which has kept its mainnet running smoothly since it launched in 2015. The paper says that Ethereum’s extended life and strong network effects make it the best platform for big tokenization efforts.

A Closer Look at the $2 Trillion Forecast

Standard Chartered’s analysis gives a detailed look at how the $2 trillion RWA market is likely to be divided up among different types of assets. This detailed prediction gives us useful information about which parts of traditional finance are most likely to be the first to change because of blockchain.

This distribution shows that the most liquid and standardized asset classes are likely to lead the way in tokenization. Money market funds and publicly traded stocks together make about 75% of the total predicted market.

The research talks about how important tokenized money market funds are, especially as stablecoins are becoming more popular with businesses for treasury management and other financial tasks.

DeFi is becoming more of a threat to traditional finance

The Standard Chartered analysis says that this wave of tokenization is part of a bigger change in traditional finance (TradFi) caused by decentralized finance (DeFi). Kendrick notes that DeFi is growing beyond its original purpose of letting “crypto natives” engage in risky activities to include more advanced financial tools and services.

“We expect a lot more disruption. We see tokenized real-world assets reaching USD 2tn by the end of 2028, which is the same as the stablecoin market cap,” Kendrick said. He said that DeFi platforms can already compete directly with existing banks in two areas: lending and tokenizing real-world assets.

The research makes the most controversial claim by saying that “if tokenized products can be traded on DEX, it could be disruptive to the operation of stock exchanges.” This suggests that decentralized exchanges might one day be able to compete with traditional stock markets for trading tokenized copies of the same underlying assets. This would be a major threat to the way existing financial markets work.

The regulatory landscape is both a catalyst and a barrier

The paper says that changes in regulations could help or hurt the increase that is expected. Kendrick pointed out two important U.S. regulatory actions that are changing the landscape:

• The GENIUS Act: This law, which went into effect in July 2025, set specific standards for stablecoins, which has sped up their use in both retail and institutional markets.
• The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act: This new law is likely to pass in late 2025 or early 2026. It would make asset tokenization, decentralized trading, and lending operations even more legal.

The research, on the other hand, also warns about the possible regulatory issues that may come up in the future. Kendrick said that “the lack of regulatory clarity in the U.S. remains the main risk,” but he also made it clear that regulatory failure is “not our base case.”

The paper notably said that if the U.S. doesn’t pass full crypto laws by the 2026 midterm elections, the expansion of tokenized RWAs could slow down a lot. This shows how important it is for institutions to accept new technologies in this new field and for regulations to be clear.

Implications for the Larger Financial Ecosystem Standard Chartered’s optimistic forecast shows that traditional finance is starting to see asset tokenization as more than just a new technology. It could be a major change in how financial assets are issued, traded, and settled.

There are a lot of good things about it:

1. Tokenization can speed up settlement operations that now take days to minutes or seconds.
2. You can buy digital shares of things that were hard to sell before, such real estate and fine art.
3. Tokenized assets may be transferred between countries with fewer middlemen, which could lead to more connected global markets.

Blockchain-based record keeping keeps track of ownership histories in a clear way while also keeping them safe through cryptographic verification.

If the value of the technology goes from $35 billion to $2 trillion in just three years, it will be one of the fastest adoptions of any financial technology in recent history. If this change happens even in part, it will change the way traditional banking and blockchain technology work together in a big way. It might also bring a lot of the global economy onto blockchain infrastructure.

Conclusion

makes a strong case for the tokenized real-world asset market to explode very soon. The expected growth to $2 trillion by 2028 is more than just a number; it could mean a big change in how people think about, represent, and exchange financial assets.

Standard Chartered thinks that the combination of established stablecoin infrastructure, Ethereum’s demonstrated stability, and changing regulatory frameworks makes the right climate for tokenization to grow. As traditional and decentralized banking continue to clash, turning real-world assets into tokenized forms could become the most important part of the next wave of financial innovation.