MV Global’s Framework and VC Outlook on the Tokenized Real World Asset (RWA) Ecosystem
I. MV Global’s Framework for Tokenized Real World Assets (RWAs)
At MV Global, we see the tokenization of RWAs as a foundational shift in financial infrastructure. RWAs represent both tangible and intangible assets converted into digital tokens operating on blockchain networks, bridging traditional finance and emerging digital markets.
The core promise of RWA tokenization lies in enhancing liquidity, enabling faster capital movement, and improving price discovery for historically illiquid assets, and expanding access to new asset classes through fractional ownership. However, as attention around the space grows, separating substance from noise becomes essential.
Our approach focuses on fundamentals. To identify high-conviction opportunities in the RWA sector, we apply a simple but disciplined framework:
- Which subsector will experience strong growth?
- Which actor in the process will generate revenue and does the business model scale?
- Are there VC-investable opportunities?
This framework guides our evaluation of RWA projects across asset classes, anchoring our investment decisions in businesses with defendable moats, strong revenue potential, and highly scalable, value-accretive models, rather than short-term narratives.
II. RWA Growth Trends: Historical Expansion and Forecast Outlook
The tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs) has accelerated meaningfully over the past three years. As of June 2025, total RWA on-chain volume (excl. Stablecoins) amounts to over $23B, representing a 109% year-over-year increase and a 566% rise over three years. Private credit accounts for the largest share at $13.4B, while tokenized treasuries experienced the fastest growth, expanding over 300% year-on-year.
Stablecoins, meanwhile, remain the dominant on-chain asset class, with a total market cap of $237B as of March 2025, reflecting 48% annual growth and a 50% increase over three-years. The expected passage of the Genius Act in the U.S. is likely to further legitimize and accelerate stablecoin adoption by providing a clear regulatory framework for issuance and oversight.
Looking forward, MV Global projects RWA volume (excl., stablecoins) to reach approximately $40B by the end of 2025, growing to ~$10T by 2030. This outlook is more conservative than broader industry forecasts, which range from $50B to $500B by 2025 and $2T to $30T by 2030, but reflects our view of a steady and sustainable adoption trajectory.
III. Which Subsector Will Experience Strong Growth?
To identify the most promising subsectors within RWA tokenization, we evaluated ten asset classes across criteria including access, liquidity, costs, yield and implementation challenges.
The outcome is clear: Stablecoins, Commodities, and Treasuries stand out. These sectors combine strong fundamentals with measurable traction, offering both structural advantages and real-world demand. For example, treasuries benefit from a clear use case around yield and safety, while commodities and stablecoins already show proven utility in DeFi and payment infrastructure. This reflects the digitization of already highly liquid and widely used assets, making them the most straightforward to tokenize. In these cases, tokenization does not fundamentally transform the asset but rather removes operational friction, streamlines access, and enhances usability across financial infrastructure.
In contrast, sectors like Private Credit, Real Estate, Collectibles, Funds, and Private Equity appear attractive in theory, especially regarding improvements in access and liquidity, but real-world demand has yet to catch up. Regulatory complexity, limited data availability (due to the absence of ongoing reporting requirements), and the cold start problem — where assets are difficult to price and trade initially due to a lack of participants and transparency — continue to constrain adoption. While tokenization has the potential to improve liquidity and price discovery over time, these dynamics make it difficult to attract early activity and sustained investor interest.
Stocks and Bonds, meanwhile, offer limited upside for tokenization at the asset layer. These markets already provide liquidity, fractionalization, and broad retail access through traditional platforms, with ETFs and structured products effectively addressing many of the same use cases. At present, tokenization introduces an additional layer of cost and complexity, driven by regulatory uncertainty and operational overhead, without delivering meaningful incremental benefits. While backend and infrastructure-oriented solutions remain more relevant today, the long-term picture may evolve. As portfolio management increasingly shifts on-chain and tokenization becomes commoditized, these asset classes could become more viable candidates. For now, however, we see tokenization of public equities and bonds as premature.
Our focus is therefore on verticals where blockchain delivers both technical and market advantages, and where we see evidence of near to mid term adoption.
IV. Which actor in the process will generate revenue, and does the business model scale?
The RWA value chain is evolving rapidly, and so are the revenue opportunities across its layers. At a high level, three core actors capture value directly from the tokenization process: the issuer, the tokenization platform, and the blockchain base-layer.
Three models are emerging:
- Option 1: Issuer uses an external tokenization platform — the most common approach today. Platforms like Securitize or whitelabeled infrastructure providers handle issuance, compliance, and settlement, earning revenues through setup fees, issuance costs, custody, and ongoing servicing. The underlying blockchain base layer generates revenue through transaction fees.
- Option 2: Issuer interacts directly with the existing blockchain base layer — bypassing middleware and using smart contracts to tokenize assets. This model is leaner but assumes significant technical capacity. The underlying blockchain base layer generates revenue through transaction fees.
- Option 3: Issuer builds its own private blockchain solution — while technically feasible, few issuers are currently positioned to develop and maintain proprietary tokenization and blockchain infrastructure at scale.
Beyond the core mechanics, a broader ecosystem of revenue-generating actors surrounds the tokenization process:
- Exchanges and secondary markets, ranging from specialized platforms like tZERO and INX to broader venues such as Coinbase and Binance, generate revenue through listing fees, trading spreads, and transaction volume.
- Market makers and liquidity providers capture arbitrage and volume-based incentives, helping bootstrap the tradability of otherwise illiquid assets.
- Data and analytics platforms monetize through pricing feeds, benchmarks, risk data, and compliance services.
- Custodians, wallets, and compliance providers deliver operational infrastructure and earn recurring servicing fees.
That said, we believe the current dominance of tokenization platforms may be temporary. Many of these platforms are serving as intermediaries in pilot phases, helping large institutions experiment without building internal capabilities. If tokenization scales meaningfully, we expect major financial institutions to internalize key infrastructure, either by building it themselves or through acquisitions, to protect margins, control data, and capture more of the value chain. In parallel, dominant B2B infrastructure providers are likely to emerge to serve the long tail of smaller financial institutions that lack the resources or strategic need to develop proprietary solutions.
As a result, we expect durable value to accrue to actors with structural advantages — either base-layer protocols with high volume and interoperability, or vertical-specific infrastructure tightly integrated into institutional workflows.
V. Identifying the Most Promising VC Opportunities in the RWA Stack
#1 Stablecoin Issuers — The Most Open and Competitive Issuer Vertical in RWA
Following our analysis of subsector growth potential, we identified Stablecoins, Commodities, and Treasuries as the most promising verticals within the RWA space. However, while commodities and treasuries are likely to be dominated by large incumbent issuers, such as asset managers, banks, and regulated fintechs, stablecoins stand out as a structurally open and competitive market.
In most tokenized asset classes, issuers will be traditional financial institutions with existing infrastructure, distribution, and regulatory positioning. As a result, while tokenization modernizes how assets are issued and transferred, it does not fundamentally change who captures value. What it does offer, however, is the potential for more efficient operations, reduced reliance on intermediaries, and ultimately better service and access for end users. The current financial stack is not being replaced, but rather re-architected on more flexible and transparent rails.
Stablecoins are different. This remains one of the few areas where new entrants still have the potential to shape the category. While the space has seen significant innovation alongside high-profile failures, we believe that successfully backing a category leader across any of the emerging models would be highly meaningful. Beyond the established fiat-backed players like Circle and Tether, innovation continues at pace across three alternative segments:
- Crypto-backed: Trust-minimized, censorship-resistant, on-chain native models
- Algorithmic: Capital-efficient, autonomous systems aiming to maintain stable value
- RWA-backed: Yield-bearing tokens backed by tokenized real-world assets
Each model presents unique design trade-offs, and while not all may succeed at scale, market concentration remains low — creating fertile ground for experimentation and early-stage investment. As demand grows across payments, DeFi, and cross-border finance, we see stablecoin issuance as one of the few areas in the RWA stack where early-stage players can still emerge as category leaders.
#2 Tokenization Infrastructure — Select Short-Term Bets, Long-Term Ecosystem Play
As tokenization volumes grow, so does demand for enabling infrastructure. However, we believe the most promising VC opportunities lie not in base-layer chains but in higher-order infrastructure and services that power issuance, trading, and compliance.
We do not expect new L1s or L2s to successfully position themselves as RWA-specialized blockchains. Existing general-purpose chains, such as Ethereum and Solana, already serve the space well. For highly regulated token issuers, minor performance gains do not justify the cost and risk of migrating to unproven chains. While we don’t believe there will be a single winner, Ethereum’s current ~60% market share and its strong security model are highly valued by institutions. As a result, we see little reason to expect a drastic shift in chain preference in the near to mid-term.
In the near term, there may be an opportunity in tokenization platforms, especially challengers to established players like Securitize. These platforms provide issuers with tools for issuance, compliance, and investor management, either directly or via whitelabel solutions. However, we view these businesses as tactically interesting but strategically constrained. As B2B infrastructure plays, they face long sales cycles, slow scaling dynamics, and limited network effects. The space is increasingly crowded, and while later-stage investments may offer more predictable outcomes, the overall return profile is less attractive for early-stage VC.
Longer-term, our conviction is stronger around ecosystem infrastructure that scales with volume and complexity. We see real potential in secondary trading venues, liquidity provisioning, and data infrastructure. Exchanges and marketplaces can monetize listings and trading activity as tokenized assets become more liquid. Market makers and liquidity providers will be essential to bootstrap tradability, especially for previously illiquid instruments like credit or funds. Meanwhile, data and analytics providers will form the backbone of institutional adoption by building benchmarks, pricing tools, and risk frameworks.
While these categories may evolve into growth-stage opportunities — where value concentrates among category leaders — we believe there is room for multiple winners if RWA tokenization reaches meaningful scale. Furthermore, we see emerging potential at the intersection of institutional tokenization and DeFi-native infrastructure. As these worlds converge, new use cases may unlock deeper liquidity, composability, and innovation beyond today’s architecture.
In short, while platform-layer investments may offer tactical upside, our longer-term VC focus is on ecosystem enablers that scale with the market, not just with the issuer.
About MV Global
Established in 2019, MV Global has emerged as a force in the Web3 landscape focused on early-stage investments and venture building. Our mission is clear: to partner with mavericks, visionaries, and free thinkers to leverage blockchain-enabled technologies to build for the future.
