The downward trend in the crypto market continued today, with a decrease in total market capitalization by 3.17% over the past month due to ongoing waves of selling. However, there is one sector that is resisting this: tokenized Real-World Assets (RWAs).
The value of these distributed assets continues to rise and has reached a new all-time high, despite unfavorable market conditions.
Bitcoin selling wave continues: RWA sector remains largely unscathed
According to data from RWA.xyz, the sector now has $19.06 billion in distributed asset value. This represents an increase in value of 4.59% over the past month.
At the same time, the total value of the represented assets is $414.6 billion, primarily because the Canton Network manages $395.2 billion in institutional assets.
The number of asset holders has also increased, by 7.23% to 583,821. Stablecoins continue to dominate the sector, with $299.17 billion in value and 212.54 million holders. This is an increase of 4.12% compared to the same period.
Kevin Rusher, founder of RAAC (a RWA lending and borrowing ecosystem), says that attention in the crypto market remains particularly focused on the Bitcoin price, which continues to decline. According to him, recent developments indicate that the selling pressure persists.
“As usual, most attention within the crypto sector is directed towards the Bitcoin price, which continues to decline towards the end of 2025, as if it is stuck on a sled… News from yesterday indicated that Strategy has stopped buying BTC and has put more than $700 million in cash, suggesting that this selling pressure is likely to continue. The inflow into Bitcoin this year was also significantly lower than last year, with $27.2 billion compared to $41.6 billion in 2024,” said Rusher.
Tokenized gold is emerging as an important growth engine.
Despite this broad weakness, Rusher emphasizes that the selling pressure has not reached the tokenized RWA segment. He indicates that this part of the market is largely overlooked, while it is showing some of the highest returns of this year.
The growth is partly driven by a rising global demand for gold. This precious metal continues to reach new all-time highs. Tokenized gold is showing particularly strong momentum.
“Tokenized gold has even risen by 227% this year, from $1 billion to over $3.27 billion. The RWA commodities sector has thus become one of the key growth areas of the year. At the beginning of 2025, there were only four gold products; now the offering consists of 15 products, covering not only gold but also oil, wheat, platinum, soybeans, and more,” the executive emphasized.
Moreover, Shehram Khattak, Legal Director at Trust Wallet, notes that tokenized gold could become a strong competitor to Bitcoin.
“We are now in a situation where you start thinking about real-world assets, such as tokenizing assets. If you can offer tokenized gold in the right way, then that is a significant note. Bitcoin is widely used as a store of value, but if that is the case, tokenized gold could become a strong competitor to Bitcoin,” he notes.
According to Rusher, the growth in this sector is driven not only by significant institutional demand but also by more retail participants. He states that retail investors are opting for stable assets on-chain instead of completely leaving the market during periods of high volatility.
“This volatile year has really shaped the sector and made it a robust growth market. This is a particularly positive sign for the growth of crypto as a whole, as RWAs provide a stable base that keeps liquidity in crypto even when times get tough. RWAs are absolutely the future of crypto and deserve much more attention,” he adds.
The tokenization market could reach $100 billion in 2026.
Looking ahead, Jesse Knutson, Head of Operations at Bitfinex Securities, expects the tokenization sector as a whole to grow to at least $100 billion by the end of 2026.
He expects that tokenized fixed-income products will remain the largest segment in the short term, while tokenized stocks will gradually take up a larger share of the total tokenized assets.
Knutson adds that the ongoing tokenization of stocks is likely to attract more retail participants, broadening the investment base for tokenized assets.
“Tokenization can provide regulated access to investment opportunities such as microfinancing bonds, litigation finance products, or Bitcoin hashrate contracts – assets not available in traditional markets. We expect this momentum to continue in 2026, with more alternative assets, innovative fixed-income products supported by Bitcoin mining, and tokenized ETFs,” he told BeInCrypto.
Earlier, Plume CEO Chris Yin also predicted a 10 to 20 times growth in both value and users in 2026, even in a cautious scenario. Therefore, the development of the RWA sector in 2026 is likely to be a trend to watch closely.