‘Trillions by 2030’: Stellar, Centrifuge and Moody’s Outline What’s Next for Real-World Assets

Real-world assets (RWAs) on public blockchains could reach trillions by 2030, panelists said during a session moderated by CryptoNews in Rio, ￰0￱ from Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) , Centrifuge, and Moody’s argue that tokenization is already moving from experiments to production—and that institutions waiting “five years” risk being left ￰1￱ counts as an RWA—and what’s actually working RWAs encompass anything originating off-chain and brought on-chain—receivables, funds, real estate, and more, said Lucas of Moody’s. For now, the first movers are the “boring but compelling” yield products: ￰2￱ and high-quality funds, with CLOs (collateralized loan obligations) and private credit emerging as next-wave candidates, added Graeme of ￰3￱ Ray, CFO at SDF, notes the importance of making previously gated instruments “widely available in small amounts,” showing up in wallets around the ￰4￱ shift, she said, is the real power of DeFi ￰5￱ TradFi can’t wait Institutions are already piloting digital twins of funds and deposits, panelists said, citing activity from BlackRock, Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, and Goldman ￰6￱ short-run driver is simple: new on-chain liquidity hungry for RWA ￰7￱ long-run prize is efficiency—lower costs, faster settlement and reduced counterparty ￰8￱ pointed to FX as a near-term, high-impact use case: today, it’s complex, ISDA-heavy, and slow to settle.

“Bringing that on-chain where it’s instantaneous opens the market,” she said—provided there is sufficient liquidity behind the ￰9￱ big is the market now? Depending on the methodology, on-chain RWAs are often cited around $30 billion today, panelists said—“realistically, maybe a bit less.” But the group expects an accelerating adoption curve as capital sources deepen and regulators clarify rules, pushing the market toward the trillions sooner than many expect. Importantly, adoption isn’t just about market cap; it’s about ￰10￱ pointed to the transition from “buy-and-hold” to RWAs being used as collateral and embedded in on-chain cash-flow loops—for example, CLOs parking idle cash in tokenized treasury funds.

Risk, trust, and the Moody’s lens For investors asking how to trust the off-chain performance of on-chain tokens, Moody’s is adapting its frameworks, Lucas ￰11￱ agency is examining four buckets: platform risk (reliability and continuity), smart-contract risk (audits and functionality), asset-representation risk (does the token legally mirror the underlying), and cyber/external risk. “An asset is an asset and credit is credit,” he said—the fundamentals don’t change, but operational risk ￰12￱ unlocks the next leg: liquidity and interoperability Two watchwords surfaced repeatedly: liquidity and interoperability. Deep, connected pools will determine which platforms ￰13￱ liquidity across chains will slow growth; interoperable rails could “unlock all the liquidity” and create stable, scalable ￰14￱ predictions By 2030, panelists expect everyday savings products across wallets and DeFi apps to be quietly RWA-backed, streaming yield from treasuries, CLOs, and other regulated instruments—abstracting complexity for end ￰15￱ with yield-bearing stables, rapid FX, and less bureaucracy via programmable assets were flagged as high-conviction ￰16￱ line: Institutions aren’t “coming”—they’re ￰17￱ next phase is stitching together compliant infrastructure, cross-chain liquidity, and transparent risk to carry RWAs from tens of billions to trillions.