Wall Street is gearing up to go on-chain. Tokenization of Real World Assets (RWA) seems to be picking up speed every day. Following the recent announcement of the financial giant DTCC teaming up with the Stellar (XLM) blockchain ecosystem, it's now Citi bank that's shining a light on the bright future for tokenized assets. In fact, in their latest report titled "Tokenization 2030: Wall Street On-Chain," the big bank is throwing around a figure in the trillions of dollars for tokenization!
Citi's optimism stems from the fact that traditional exchanges are all starting to embrace RWA tokenization.
In its latest report, cited by CoinDesk, Citi Bank predicts that the RWA tokenization market for real-world assets could reach $5 trillion by 2030, up from the current market of $17 billion.
And that's its base scenario. Depending on the level and speed of adoption, Citi group's analysts estimate a range of $2.7 trillion to $8.2 trillion! It's worth noting that, even today, operators at major financial centers are no longer just watching: they're starting to deploy tokenization (or at least experiment with it).
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), the central infrastructure of US markets that we previously mentioned, plans to start processing tokenized securities as early as July 2026, with an acceleration in 2027 thanks to its recent partnership with the crypto project Stellar (XLM). Meanwhile, Nasdaq is working on a framework to issue on-chain stocks, with a launch horizon set for 2027. The Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), owner of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), is moving in a similar direction. It seems that all traditional finance now wants a piece of the tokenization pie.
The benefits of cryptos and blockchains are now more than understood: they want to be acquired by TradFi.
This movement of funds toward blockchains goes beyond mere technical modernization. For these operators, it's about shortening settlement times, reducing costs (especially in post-trade), and opening access to asset classes previously reserved for a handful of institutional players.
But no tokenized market works without the right payment rails. That's precisely the role stablecoins play, enabling near-instant settlements and smoothing out cross-border flows. Citi's experts anticipate a total valuation of $1.9 trillion for this segment by 2030 (up from $320 billion today).
Notable collateral effect: US dollar-backed stablecoin issuers, who typically back their reserves with US Treasury bonds, would alone generate nearly $1 trillion in additional demand for US sovereign debt. This explains Washington's interest in the subject.
Speaking of the good ol' US of A, the next few weeks will be crucial for the speed of RWA tokenization development due to the regulatory clarity expected for the crypto market. Indeed, the CLAIRTY Act is set to go for a final vote in the US Senate in the coming weeks, after being approved in mid-May by the Senate Banking Committee. The optimistic forecasts from Citi's analysts are based on three variables: the operational maturity of infrastructures, the stability of the US framework, and the ability of stablecoins to absorb significant volumes of institutional settlements. If this equation holds, the line between Wall Street and on-chain finance could blur faster than expected.
