Not all tokenized assets grow at the same speed, and the gap between the fastest and slowest is striking. A16z crypto’s latest analysis breaks down exactly how different categories of real-world assets have scaled on-chain, and the numbers tell a story about where institutional appetite is actually flowing.
The tokenized asset market, excluding stablecoins, now sits at approximately $34 billion. That’s roughly 10x growth from under $3 billion in mid-2024.
The speed gap is enormous
Asset-backed credit, a category that includes tokenized home equity lines of credit and lending vault tokens, hit the $1 billion market cap milestone in just 185 days after its first on-chain activity. That’s six months, give or take.
Specialty finance was the next fastest. Think tokenized reinsurance contracts and bitcoin mining notes. That category crossed $1 billion in under two years.
