Key Points Summary

Ethereum leads the RWA market with its first-mover advantage, past institutional experiments, deep on-chain liquidity, and decentralized architecture. However, more generalized blockchains with faster and cheaper transactions, as well as RWA-specific chains designed for regulatory compliance, are addressing Ethereum's limitations in cost and performance. These emerging platforms are positioning themselves as next-generation infrastructure by offering superior technical scalability or built-in compliance features.

The next phase of RWA growth will be led by chains that successfully integrate three elements: on-chain regulatory compatibility, a service ecosystem built around real-world assets, and meaningful on-chain liquidity.

1. Where is the RWA Market Growing Currently?

Tokenization of real-world assets (RWA) has become one of the most prominent themes in the blockchain industry. Global consulting firms like BCG have published extensive market forecasts, and Tiger Research has conducted in-depth analyses of emerging markets such as Indonesia, highlighting the growing importance of this field.

So, what exactly is RWA? It refers to converting tangible assets like real estate, bonds, and commodities into digital tokens. This tokenization process requires blockchain infrastructure. Currently, Ethereum is the primary infrastructure supporting these transactions.

Despite increasing competition, Ethereum maintains its dominance in the RWA market. Specialized RWA blockchains have emerged, and mature DeFi platforms like Solana are expanding into the RWA domain. Nevertheless, Ethereum still accounts for over 50% of total market activity, highlighting the robustness of its existing position. This report examines the key factors behind Ethereum's current market leadership and explores the evolving conditions that may shape the next phase of growth and competition.

2. Why Does Ethereum Maintain Its Leading Position?

2.1. First-Mover Advantage and Institutional Trust

There are clear reasons why Ethereum has become the default platform for institutional tokenization. It was the first to introduce smart contracts and actively prepared for the RWA market. Supported by a highly active developer community, Ethereum established critical tokenization standards like ERC-1400 and ERC-3643 long before competing platforms appeared, providing the necessary technical and regulatory foundation for pilot projects.

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3. New Emerging Challengers Reshaping the Landscape

The Ethereum mainnet proved the feasibility of tokenized finance. However, with success, it also exposed structural limitations hindering broader institutional adoption. Key obstacles include limited transaction throughput, latency issues, and unpredictable fee structures.

To address these challenges, Layer 2 Rollup solutions like Arbitrum, Optimism, and Polygon zkEVM have emerged. Major upgrades including the Merge (2022), Dencun (2024), and the upcoming Pectra (2025) have brought improvements in scalability. Nevertheless, the network still falls short of traditional financial infrastructure. For instance, Visa processes over 65,000 transactions per second, a level Ethereum has not yet reached. For institutions requiring high-frequency trading or real-time settlement, these performance gaps remain a critical constraint.

Latency also poses challenges. Block generation averages 12 seconds, and with additional confirmations needed for secure settlement, finality typically takes up to three minutes. During network congestion, this delay can further increase—creating difficulties for time-sensitive financial operations.

More importantly, gas fee volatility remains a concern. During peak periods, transaction fees have exceeded $50, and even under normal conditions, costs frequently rise above $20. Such fee uncertainty complicates business planning and may undermine the competitiveness of Ethereum-based services.

Securitize illustrates this dynamic well. After encountering Ethereum's limitations, the company expanded to other platforms like Solana and Polygon, while also developing its own chain Converage. While Ethereum played a crucial role in facilitating early institutional experiments, it now faces increasing pressure to meet the demands of a more mature, performance-sensitive market.

3.1. The Rise of Fast, Efficient, and Cost-Effective General Blockchains

As Ethereum's limitations become increasingly apparent, institutions are increasingly exploring general blockchains that offer alternative advantages in key performance bottlenecks such as transaction speed, fee stability, and finality time to complement Ethereum.

However, despite ongoing collaboration with institutional participants, the actual number of tokenized assets on these platforms (excluding stablecoins) remains significantly lower compared to Ethereum. In many cases, tokenized assets launched on general chains are still part of an Ethereum-dominated multi-chain deployment strategy.

Nevertheless, there are signs of substantial progress. In the private credit sector, new tokenization initiatives are emerging. For instance, on zkSync, the Tradable platform has gained attention, accounting for over 18% of activity in the field—second only to Ethereum.

At this stage, general blockchains are just beginning to establish their foothold. Platforms like Solana, which have experienced rapid DeFi ecosystem growth, now face a strategic challenge: how to convert this momentum into a sustainable position in the RWA domain. Excellent technical performance alone is insufficient. To compete with Ethereum, they must provide infrastructure and services that meet institutional investors' trust and compliance expectations.

Ultimately, these blockchains' success in the RWA market will depend less on raw throughput and more on their ability to provide tangible value. Differentiated ecosystems built around each chain's unique advantages will determine their long-term positioning in this emerging field.

3.2. The Emergence of RWA-Specific Blockchains

An increasing number of blockchain platforms are abandoning generic designs in favor of domain-specific specialization. This trend is evident in the RWA domain, with a wave of new purpose-built chains emerging, optimized specifically for real-world asset tokenization.

The rationale for RWA-specific blockchains is clear. Tokenizing real-world assets requires direct integration with existing financial regulations, making the use of generic blockchain infrastructure insufficient in many cases. Specific technical requirements—especially around regulatory compliance—must be addressed from the ground up.

A key area is compliance processing. KYC and AML procedures are crucial for tokenization workflows but have traditionally been handled off-chain. This approach limits innovation by merely wrapping traditional financial assets in a blockchain format without redesigning the underlying compliance logic.

The current shift is towards moving these compliance functions entirely on-chain. There is growing demand for blockchain networks that can not only record ownership but also natively enforce regulatory requirements at the protocol level. In response, some RWA-focused chains have begun offering on-chain compliance modules. For example, MANTRA includes decentralized identity (DID) functionality, supporting compliance enforcement at the infrastructure layer. Other specialized chains are expected to follow similar paths.

Beyond compliance, many such platforms leverage deep domain expertise to target specific asset categories. Maple Finance focuses on institutional lending and asset management, Centrifuge on trade finance, and Polymesh on regulated securities. Rather than broadly tokenizing sovereign bonds or stablecoins, they use vertical specialization as a competitive strategy.

That said, many of these platforms are still in early stages. Some have not yet launched their mainnet, and most remain limited in scale and adoption. If general chains are just beginning to gain attention in the RWA domain, specialized chains are still at the starting line.

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