Why Half the Tokenized Asset Market Is Standing Still, and What It Means for Broker-Dealers

Tokenization solved issuance. It hasn't solved distribution. Here's what the latest market data means for broker-dealers evaluating tokenized assets, and why access, not existence, is the real bottleneck.

The tokenized real-world asset (RWA) market has crossed $60 billion in tracked value. That headline number gets repeated in every conference keynote and market report this year. It is also, on its own, misleading.

According to the Real State of Tokenization in 2026 report from BeInCrypto Intelligence, built on market data from RWA.xyz, more than half of that value has never moved. Not once, in the week the report measured.

That single fact changes the question a broker-dealer should be asking about tokenized assets. It is not "does this market exist." It clearly does. The real question is "which parts of it are actually accessible, tradable, and safe to put in front of a client," and that turns out to be a much smaller market than the headline suggests.

The $60 billion number, and the $32.9 billion problem inside it

The report tracked roughly $60 billion in tokenized real-world assets across more than 7,000 products and 12 asset classes. Within that, researchers tested 1,289 tokenized assets worth more than $100,000 each for weekly transfer activity.

The results:

• 910 assets, worth $32.9 billion, recorded zero weekly transfers. That's 56% of the market measured for activity.
• Only 379 assets, worth $26.2 billion, showed any weekly movement at all.
• Roughly $27 billion of the dormant value came from "Represented" assets (source), tokens that use a blockchain mainly as an internal record rather than as a public trading rail.

That last distinction matters more than any other number in the report.

Distributed vs. Represented: the difference that actually determines usability

Not every "tokenized asset" is built the same way, and the difference isn't cosmetic.

Distributed assets move on public blockchain rails. An investor can hold one, transfer it, and in many cases trade it, subject to compliance controls. These are the tokens that function like an actual financial instrument.

Represented assets exist on-chain primarily as a record of ownership or exposure. They may never touch a public trading venue. For an issuer, this can be a legitimate design choice, useful for internal recordkeeping, custody, or transparency. For a broker-dealer evaluating what to put in front of a client, it is a critical thing to know before assuming a "tokenized" product behaves like a liquid one.

The report found that tokenized US Treasuries are the clear exception to the liquidity problem. Treasuries reached roughly $15 billion in on-chain value across 100 tracked assets, and the category is 99% distributed, meaning almost all of it can actually move on public rails rather than sitting in a closed ledger. That's a meaningfully different risk and access profile than the market average.

Concentration is the other half of the story

Liquidity isn't the only thing that's narrower than the headline number implies. So is where the value actually sits.

• Just 62 assets hold 88% of total market value.
• Five products account for roughly half the entire market: Figure HELOC, Circle USYC, Tether Gold, BlackRock BUIDL, and Justoken JMWH (source).
• 97% of tokenized asset value sits outside US retail reach, with only about $1.7 billion legally accessible to US retail investors.

For a broker-dealer, this means "the tokenized RWA market" isn't really one market to evaluate. It's a handful of large, well-distributed products (Treasuries chief among them), surrounded by a long tail of smaller, often illiquid, often access-restricted tokens that may not be appropriate, or even available, to offer clients yet.

So where's the actual bottleneck?

Sanjeev Birari, Co-founder and CBO of Zoniqx, put it directly at The Future of Tech: Stanford Forum 2026:

"One of the biggest problems is distribution. Projects have issued assets on-chain, but they're just sitting there because they haven't been distributed."

The data backs him up. Issuing a compliant tokenized asset is, at this point, a solved engineering and legal problem. Getting that asset into the hands of the broker-dealers, RIAs, and allocators who could actually offer it to clients is not.

And even where an asset is distributed and liquid, like Treasuries, a second bottleneck shows up immediately: access friction. Every new platform, custodian, or issuer a broker-dealer connects with typically means rebuilding the same compliance work from scratch. New KYC. New onboarding. New due diligence, repeated for the same underlying investor, over and over, once per connection.

That's not a data problem. It's a plumbing problem, and it's the one actually slowing broker-dealer adoption of tokenized products, more than any question about whether the technology works.

What this means for broker-dealer desks evaluating tokenized products

A few practical takeaways from the data, for any desk currently deciding whether, and how, to offer tokenized assets to clients:

1. Start with what's actually distributed. Tokenized Treasuries, at 99% distributed, are the clearest, lowest-friction entry point into this market today. Real estate tokenization, by contrast, remains small (about $457 million) and has declined year-to-date, worth watching but not yet a scaled category.
2. Ask "distributed or represented" before anything else. It determines whether a product is something you can actually offer with a functioning secondary market, or something closer to a static record.
3. Treat onboarding, not asset selection, as the real project. The harder problem for most desks isn't finding a tokenized product worth offering. It's the operational cost of re-verifying compliance every time a new platform or issuer enters the picture.

How Zoniqx and zConnect address the distribution gap

This is precisely the layer zConnect was built to operate at.

Rather than requiring a broker-dealer, RIA, or allocator to rebuild compliance infrastructure for every new tokenized product or issuer they connect with, zConnect provides Singular KYC/KYB: authenticate once, and that verification carries across every protocol connected to the network, instead of resetting from zero each time.

On the issuer side, z360 handles structuring, compliance, and lifecycle operations so an asset is built for compliant distribution from day one, not bolted on afterward.

Together, they're built around the actual finding in this data: tokenization doesn't have an issuance problem anymore. It has a distribution and access problem, and that's the layer that determines whether $32.9 billion in dormant value ever becomes usable.

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About Zoniqx

Zoniqx provides unified on-chain capital markets infrastructure, connecting tokenized asset issuers, investors, and distribution networks on a single institutional platform, from structuring to settlement. Through z360, issuers structure, tokenize, and manage the lifecycle of private credit, funds, real estate, infrastructure, and other real-world assets with compliance built in from the start. Through zConnect, that tokenized supply is distributed across 300+ connected protocols to broker-dealers, RIAs, wealth platforms, family offices, and other institutional channels, with Singular KYC/KYB removing the need to re-verify identity on every platform. Zoniqx has supported more than $4 billion in tokenized assets and operates across 20+ jurisdictions and 16+ live blockchains. Learn more at zoniqx.com.

FAQ

What percentage of tokenized real-world assets are actually liquid or tradable?According to the Real State of Tokenization in 2026 report, only about 44% of the tokenized assets measured (379 of 1,289 assets tracked, worth $26.2 billion) showed any weekly transfer activity. The remaining 56%, worth $32.9 billion, recorded zero weekly transfers.

What is the difference between "distributed" and "represented" tokenized assets?Distributed assets move on public blockchain rails and can generally be transferred or traded, subject to compliance controls. Represented assets exist on-chain mainly as an internal record of ownership, often for custody or transparency purposes, and typically do not trade on public venues.

Are tokenized Treasuries a safe entry point for broker-dealers?Tokenized US Treasuries are the most distributed category in the market, with roughly 99% of the category's $15 billion in on-chain value able to move on public blockchain rails. This makes them one of the clearest, lowest-friction categories for broker-dealers to evaluate first.

Why do broker-dealers struggle to offer multiple tokenized products?The main friction isn't finding tokenized products, it's onboarding. Most platforms and issuers require separate KYC and compliance verification, meaning the same investor is re-verified repeatedly across different tokenized asset platforms.

What does zConnect actually solve?zConnect addresses the distribution and access gap in tokenized markets. Through Singular KYC/KYB, an investor or institution authenticates once and that verification carries across every protocol connected to the network, rather than being repeated for each new platform or issuer.

How large is the tokenized real-world asset market today?As of the Real State of Tokenization in 2026 report, the tracked market stood at roughly $60 billion across more than 7,000 products and 12 asset classes, though a majority of that value showed no weekly trading activity.

Disclaimer: The figures cited in this article are drawn from third-party market research, primarily the Real State of Tokenization in 2026 report from BeInCrypto Intelligence, built on data from RWA.xyz, as reported by BeInCrypto, Yahoo Finance, and Forbes as of early July 2026. Market data changes frequently and figures may no longer reflect current conditions at the time of reading. This article is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or legal advice. Zoniqx does not guarantee the accuracy of third-party data and encourages readers to verify current figures independently before making any decisions. Zoniqx is not a registered investment adviser, broker-dealer, or financial planner. Zoniqx does not provide investment advice, recommendations, or advisory services through zConnect. Any elements provided are for connective purposes only and should not be construed as investment, legal, tax, or financial advice.