Tokenization market to reach $2 trillion by 2028, Ethereum to dominate: Standard Chartered

Standard Chartered Bank projects that the market value of tokenized real-world assets, excluding stablecoins, could surge from around $35 billion today to nearly $2 trillion by 2028.

Standard Chartered predicts tokenization market will boom to $2 trillion by 2028

Standard Chartered's head of digital assets research, Geoffrey Kendrick, expects the real-world asset (RWA) market, excluding stablecoins, to soar to $2 trillion by 2028, according to a note on Thursday.

The projected surge would be up from about $35 billion currently, putting it on par with the firm's forecast for the stablecoin market.

The bank noted that decentralized finance (DeFi) is rapidly evolving into a viable alternative to traditional financial systems that rely on centralized intermediaries, such as banks.

"Stablecoins have laid the groundwork (via increased awareness, liquidity and lending/borrowing on-chain) for other asset classes, from tokenised MMFs [money market funds] to tokenised equities, to move onchain at scale," Kendrick noted.

Kendrick believes most of this growth will take place on Ethereum, emphasizing the network's proven stability. He highlighted that Ethereum has operated for over a decade without a single mainnet outage, adding that factors such as speed or lower costs on competing blockchains are "irrelevant" compared to Ethereum's reliability and track record.

Standard Chartered estimates that tokenized money-market funds and listed equities could each represent about $750 billion of the projected $2 trillion market, while funds, private equity, commodities, corporate debt, and real estate would make up the remaining share.

Kendrick noted that the surge in stablecoin adoption in 2025 has transformed DeFi from a niche sector into a mainstream financial ecosystem, empowering non-bank entities to manage payments and savings traditionally controlled by banks. 

He highlighted lending and RWA tokenization as the two segments where DeFi protocols hold the greatest potential to challenge and reshape traditional finance.

The report added that growing stablecoin usage in developed markets has boosted on-chain liquidity, driving fresh innovation across DeFi services such as lending and borrowing.

"Stablecoins have created several necessary pre-conditions for a broader expansion of DeFi via the three pillars of increased public awareness, onchain liquidity, and onchain lending/borrowing activity in fiat-pegged product," Kendrick said.

Despite its optimistic view, Standard Chartered warns of potential risks, particularly if the United States fails to establish clear regulatory guidelines before the 2026 midterm elections. However, it says such an event isn't its base case.