Standard Chartered has projected that the market for tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) will balloon by roughly 5,600% to reach $2 trillion by 2028, driven by the expansion of decentralized finance (DeFi) lending via stablecoins.
The British bank views stablecoins as the rails enabling assets such as stocks, bonds, commodities, and funds to migrate onchain. Geoffrey Kendrick, global head of digital assets research at Standard Chartered, explained that in a tokenized ecosystem, “all assets and infrastructure exist on the same ledger and can therefore interact without barriers.”
Kendrick’s bullish call comes despite major turbulence in the DeFi space. In early April, a nearly $300 million exploit of the Ethereum liquid restaking protocol KelpDAO triggered a bank run on Aave, which lost $17 billion in deposits and $5.5 billion in active loans. However, a coalition of DeFi protocols raised over $300 million to stabilize the system, demonstrating resilience that Kendrick argues does not derail the tokenization growth engine.
The report highlights that DeFi lending lowers the cost of capital through “composability,” where one asset can earn returns, serve as collateral, and remain tradable simultaneously—reducing the need for multiple intermediaries seen in traditional finance. Kendrick emphasizes that “lending protocols are the central focus of this activity,” as they provide the connection across multi-use functions.
Standard Chartered’s projection aligns with views from other industry leaders. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has called tokenization “a foundational change” for financial markets, while Binance sees it as a transition point for crypto. Changpeng Zhao believes tokenization could unlock “trillions of dollars” in illiquid value, and Brian Armstrong stated that “everything that can be tokenized, will be.” Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin noted that blockchain systems achieve their greatest value when representing real-world economic activity.
Standard Chartered has already partnered with BlackRock and OKX on frameworks allowing tokenized funds to be used as collateral. Tokenization is expected to lower barriers for retail investors through fractional ownership of private credit funds, government securities, and real estate-linked instruments, though adoption will depend on regulatory frameworks and platform development.
