Institutional RWA Infrastructure in 2026: Five Agreements Reshape the $20 Billion Market

What is RWA, and why is it expanding rapidly?

Honestly, the progress of real-world asset tokenization over the past six months has far exceeded expectations. The market size is now approaching $20 billion, which is not just a market thesis but evidence that actual institutional capital is being deployed on the blockchain.

The expansion from $6–8 billion in early 2024 to the current $19.7 billion reflects the true market demand. Institutional investors are seeking infrastructure that ensures efficiency, revenue opportunities, and regulatory compliance, and this demand has transformed the concept of RWA into a tangible industry.

Market Segmentation: Reality Surpassing Expectations

RWA is not a single market but a collection of institutional layers with different needs:

• Government bonds and money market instruments: $8–9 billion (45–50% of the market), offering 4–6% yields
• Private credit: $20–60 billion (20–30%, the fastest-growing segment), delivering 8–12% returns
• Tokenized equities: Over $400 million (rapid expansion phase, a key growth area moving forward)

This distribution clearly indicates that institutions are not engaging in mere speculation but are pursuing specific yields and operational efficiencies.

Structural Reorganization Driven by Five Agreements

Currently, five major protocols support this space: Rayls Labs, Ondo Finance, Centrifuge, Canton Network, Polymesh. Interestingly, these are not competing but are forming a differentiated landscape to meet various institutional needs.

Three-Layer Structure for Privacy and Compliance

Rayls Labs was designed to meet bank-level privacy requirements. Using the Enygma technology stack, which combines zero-knowledge proofs and semi-homomorphic encryption, it guarantees transaction confidentiality while enabling selective data disclosure to regulators. With the completion of the Halborn security audit in January 2026, institutional-level trust is established, and in collaboration with the AmFi alliance, a plan is underway to deploy $1 billion in tokenized assets by mid-2027.

Canton Network aims to integrate with existing Wall Street infrastructure. In partnership with DTCC, it plans to enable direct tokenization of U.S. Treasuries in the first half of 2026. Its Daml smart contract architecture provides an asymmetric transparency model: transaction details are hidden from competitors but fully accessible to regulators, fulfilling the needs of traditional financial institutions.

Polymesh takes a different approach by implementing compliance verification at the protocol level. Non-compliant transactions automatically fail during consensus, eliminating the need for auditing custom smart contracts. With settlement finality within six seconds, it achieves the efficiency of traditional financial systems.

Speed Race in Liquidity Provision and Distribution

Ondo Finance currently manages a total locked value (TVL) of $1.93 billion and is accelerating retail penetration through a multi-chain strategy. It plans to launch U.S. equities and ETFs on Solana in Q1 2026, demonstrating an ambitious plan to support over 1,000 tokenized assets. It is democratizing access to sectors traditionally limited by minimum investment thresholds, such as AI, electric vehicle stocks, and thematic investments.

Centrifuge has become the standard infrastructure for the institutional credit market, reaching a TVL of $1.3–1.45 billion. Its partnership with Janus Henderson enables full on-chain management of a $21.4 billion AAA-rated CLO portfolio, with plans to expand on Avalanche with an additional $250 million investment by July 2025. The integration with Chronicle Labs’ oracle in January 2026 allows for asset authenticity verification via encrypted data, enabling transparent NAV calculations and regulatory reporting.

Unresolved Challenges Limiting Market Growth

Fragmentation of cross-chain liquidity costs $1.3–1.5 billion annually, with the same assets trading across different blockchains at 1–3% price differences. This efficiency loss could exceed $75 billion by 2030.

The fundamental contradiction between privacy and transparency remains unresolved. Institutions demand transaction confidentiality, while regulators require auditability. In scenarios involving multiple stakeholders—issuers, investors, rating agencies, regulators, auditors—each requiring different levels of visibility, there is currently no perfect solution.

Regulatory geopolitical fragmentation is also a challenge. The EU (MiCA), the US (individual No-Action Letter applications), and other jurisdictions adopt different frameworks, increasing cross-border capital flow adjustment costs.

Key Milestones for 2026

• Ondo Solana Listing (Q1): Test whether retail distribution can sustain liquidity
• Canton DTCC MVP (H1): Demonstrate feasibility of blockchain implementation for U.S. Treasury settlement
• Centrifuge Grove Deployment (Year-round): Test institutional entry with $1 billion private credit deployment
• Rayls AmFi Ecosystem (Ongoing): Track adoption of bank-level privacy infrastructure

Market Outlook for 2030: 50–100x Growth Scenario

If full institutional capital migration occurs, the tokenized asset market could reach $2–4 trillion by 2030. Segment-specific forecasts:

• Private credit: From $2–6 billion today to $15–20 billion (highest growth rate)
• Tokenized government bonds: Potentially exceeding $5 trillion as money market assets transition
• Real estate sector: $3–4 trillion depending on blockchain-compatible property registration

The milestone of hundreds of billions of dollars is expected around 2027–2028, with allocations roughly as follows:

• Institutional credit: $30–40 billion
• Government bonds: $30–40 billion
• Tokenized equities: $20–30 billion
• Real estate and commodities: $10–20 billion

Why is RWA Important at This Moment?

The landscape of institutional RWA in early 2026 reflects a division of problem-solving infrastructure rather than a single winner or market. This diversified structure, where protocols meet different needs, is the healthy development pattern of the industry.

Execution surpasses architecture, and results are more important than blueprints. Currently, institutional choices are based not on technological superiority but on regulatory compliance, operational efficiency, and the feasibility of gaining competitive advantages.

The implementation progress of each protocol over the next 18 months will be a key indicator shaping institutional capital flows beyond mid-2026.