Fragmented RWA markets burn $600M–$1.3B a year in cross-chain frictions

RWAio says fragmented tokenized RWA markets waste up to $1.3B yearly in fees and price gaps as assets spread across chains like Ethereum and Polygon.

Summary

• RWAio estimates fragmentation costs tokenized RWA markets $600M–$1.3B yearly via fees, slippage, and price gaps.​
• Identical RWAs trade 1%–3% apart across chains and cost 2%–5% to bridge, hurting investor returns.​
• Ethereum holds 52% of tokenized RWAs while Polygon leads bonds with 62%, underscoring multi-chain operational friction.

Fragmentation across blockchain networks is costing the tokenized real-world asset market between $600 million and $1.3 billion annually, according to research released by data analytics platform RWAio.

The report, compiled with input from 17 companies including Coinbase, Franklin Templeton and Polygon, identified significant inefficiencies in the market caused by assets being distributed across multiple blockchain networks, RWAio stated.

RWAio DeFi and cryptocurrency

The total value of tokenized real-world assets in circulation has reached over $36 billion, encompassing private credit, U.S. Treasury debt and commodities, according to the research.

RWAio found that identical assets frequently trade at different prices across various blockchains, with price discrepancies ranging from 1% to 3%. The platform also reported that transferring assets between chains costs investors between 2% and 5% per transaction due to fees and slippage.

Ethereum holds 52% of all tokenized real-world asset value, while Polygon accounts for 62% of tokenized bonds, the data showed.

The findings highlight operational challenges facing the growing tokenized asset sector as traditional financial instruments increasingly migrate to blockchain infrastructure.