09-21-2026 
|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Just as tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) pass the $30 billion mark in 2026, multiple new studies have warned that a lack of regulation and fragmented global frameworks are holding back digital asset adoption, despite the widely acknowledged benefits the technology can provide to traditional finance (TradFi).
- RWAs surge as institutions go on-chain
- Regulatory gaps slow stablecoin adoption
- Crypto ETPs gaining traction with investors
Tokenized RWAs booming
Tokenized “real-world” assets (RWAs)—traditional financial instruments represented on-chain as tokens—have surged ten-fold in two years, currently at $38.82 billion, with nearly half held in U.S. Treasury debt.
According to venture capital fund a16z Crypto, the growth in such products reflects rising institutional demand to put traditional financial instruments on chain, from government bonds and commodities to equities and private credit.
“While U.S. Treasuries dominate today, the asset class is broadening, with more categories gaining meaningful share in recent quarters,” said a16z.
Tokenized RWAs are significant because they bridge the gap between TradFi and decentralized finance (DeFi). Leveraging blockchain technology, RWAs reduce settlement delays, compliance costs, and illiquidity, creating a more efficient, transparent, and accessible financial system. This makes them attractive to both institutional and retail investors.
Major financial institutions such as BlackRock (NASDAQ: BLK), Franklin Templeton (NASDAQ: BEN), and JPMorgan (NASDAQ: JPM) have all been exploring the area. For example, BlackRock’s BUIDL fund holds $2.9 billion in tokenized U.S. Treasuries.
This adoption has picked up pace of late, which was confirmed by digital asset exchange OKX in a recent post on X that noted the area had just crossed the $30 billion mark, “up 70%+ this year.”
“The tokenization of RWAs is revolutionizing the financial landscape, with blockchain technology and the dollar playing pivotal roles in this transformation,” said OKX in a blog published in October 2025. “As the market for tokenized assets is projected to reach $10 trillion by 2030, this shift represents a structural evolution in global finance.”
Despite the area’s recent trending status, OKX noted several challenges that need to be addressed if the potential of RWAs is to be realized. Namely, the absence of robust secondary markets, which limits liquidity for certain tokenized assets, infrastructure gaps across platforms, and—perhaps most significant of all—“regulatory hurdles.”
On this latter hurdle, the firm warned that “regulatory frameworks are still evolving, creating uncertainty for market participants.”
This complaint was reflected in the findings of two recent studies, which both concluded that fragmented regulatory regimes for digital assets are hampering their success and preventing the market from grasping the opportunities the technology offers to improve outdated financial systems.
WTO warns of fragmented stablecoin regulation
Adoption of stablecoin is being held back by a lack of regulation and fragmentary frameworks, not by the technology itself, said Juan Marchetti, director of the trade in services and investment division at the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Speaking on September 14 at the launch of a new report prepared by his department that examined the potential role of stablecoins in international trade, Marchetti claimed that “the constraint is not technology. It is actually regulation and the lack of development of regulatory frameworks,” according to a report by Cointelegraph.
As evidence for this, Marchetti reportedly cited an October 2025 survey from the Financial Stability Board (FSB), which found that the comprehensive regulatory frameworks for global stablecoin arrangements remain uneven and are progressing more slowly than the organization recommended in its July 2023 high-level standards for the regulation, supervision, and oversight of crypto-asset activities.
Specifically, the cited report found that only five jurisdictions (21%) of the 28 surveyed—with the European Union’s 27 countries counting as one jurisdiction for the survey—had finalized a regulatory framework for stablecoins, while only 11 (39%) had finalized crypto-assets frameworks.
As of 2026, established stablecoin regimes exist in the EU (with the Markets In Crypto-Assets Regime), the United States (with the GENIUS Act), Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, with Australia applying existing financial services rules. Frameworks are also currently being developed or expanded in the United Kingdom (due October 2027), Canada, and South Korea. However, major financial/digital-asset centers still lack a clear, comprehensive regime, including India, Switzerland, Brazil, and South Africa.
The FSB also stressed that even where frameworks exist—despite broad convergence around core principles such as licensing, reserves and redemption—global stablecoin regulation remains “incomplete, uneven and inconsistent,” creating cross-border regulatory gaps.
Based on this, the international body made eight key recommendations, including closing regulatory gaps for crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) and global stablecoins, strengthening data and risk-monitoring capabilities, ensuring consistent regulatory approaches, and enhancing cross-border cooperation, information sharing, supervision, and crisis preparedness to address crypto-related financial stability risks globally.
For Marchetti, the FSB report served to highlight the continuing fragmentation of regulatory regimes around the globe, which he said was part of the reason stablecoins only currently account for 3% of total international payments.
This low figure is despite their apparent ability to improve some of the main friction points of trade finance, not least high costs, low speed, limited access, insufficient transparency, and foreign exchange conversion.
According to the WTO, blockchain-based settlement can occur near real time and operate continuously (24/7), reducing delays and improving liquidity management; fewer intermediaries and automated settlement may reduce payment processing costs; USD-backed stablecoins can reduce the need for multiple currency conversions in some transactions; stablecoins may provide an alternative payment rail accessible through digital wallets; stablecoins operate on common blockchain networks and can facilitate interoperability among participants; and USD-backed stablecoins can provide access to a relatively stable digital asset for transactions and treasury purposes.
In other words, the technology could be the solution to a range of long-standing international trade issues, if jurisdictions around the world would only see the opportunity and get their respective regulatory ducks in a row.
As Marchetti summed up: “Contribution to trade will depend far less on the technology than on regulatory convergence, interoperability and the surrounding financial infrastructure, especially in developing economies that stand to gain.”
Meanwhile, another study has come to similar conclusions with regard to crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs).
Survey finds ETF growth but regulatory uncertainty
The growing use of crypto ETPs is normalizing digital assets as part of standard portfolio allocations, but regulatory uncertainty remains a barrier to further adoption, according to new research from London-based Nickel Digital Asset Management (Nickel), a leading digital assets hedge fund manager, as reported by TheFinancialon September 10.
Based on interviews conducted in 2026 with 203 institutional investors and wealth managers across the U.S., the U.K., the UAE, Germany, Switzerland, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Singapore, Brazil, and the Nordics, the research found that 84% agreed that expansion of crypto ETPs will normalize digital assets in allocation models within three years, with 26% strongly agreeing with this view.
Per the report, 51 of the 203 institutional investors and wealth managers said they do not currently invest in crypto and digital assets but intend to do so in the next 24 months, with more than half (55%) of those surveyed saying they were very likely to use crypto ETPs for the first time in the next two years, either to increase digital asset exposure or invest for the first time. Of those surveyed, only 3% said they were unsure or unlikely to use them.
“Crypto ETPs are becoming an important bridge between traditional finance and digital assets. By offering familiar, transparent and operationally straightforward access, they are helping investment committees move digital assets into mainstream portfolio discussions”, Anatoly Crachilov, CEO and Founding Partner of Nickel Digital, said. “However, ETPs primarily provide passive market exposure. As institutional participation deepens, we expect growing demand for specialist active managers capable of navigating the inefficiencies, volatility and operational complexity of digital asset markets.”
According to Bloomberg data, global digital assets under management (AUM) in ETPs reached a record $237 billion in October 2025. The iShares Bitcoin ETP (IB1T) is the fastest-growing ETP in history, peaking at close to $100 billion in assets under management in Q4 2025, ranking sixth among global ETPs in 2025, “demonstrating strong marketplace demand.”
This increase in interest was viewed overwhelmingly positively by those surveyed in the Nickel research, with around 90% saying that growth in crypto ETPs has had a positive impact on their organization’s view of the digital asset sector. They were also confident that the sector will continue to expand, with more than four out of five (81%) expecting net flows to increase over the next 12 months and 19% predicting dramatic increases.
In terms of the reasons given for using crypto ETPs, respondents reportedly claimed they were easier to gain investment committee or board approval for, which was cited by 28%, while around 21% valued them for liquidity and transparency, and 20% pointed to easier operational and custody arrangements.
And yet—much like the complaints of the WTO’s Marchetti when it came to the stablecoin sector—the Nickel research also found that more than half of respondents (52%) said regulatory uncertainty remains the biggest barrier to increased institutional use of crypto ETPs, beating concerns that ETFs do not solve underlying market or custody risks at 44% and concerns around liquidity and trading costs at 40%.
Thus, the underlying theme that emerges from these various developments is that, despite the positive growth and institutional adoption that digital asset products have seen over the past few years, in order for the systemic benefits of the technology to be fully realized there is more work to be done on regulatory consistency and clarity around the globe.
Watch | Tokenization on public blockchain: Transforming RWAs and finance
