Real-world assets (RWAs) are now a $10 billion category, according to data curated by DeFiLlama, with Maker, BlackRock’s BUIDL and Ethena’s USDtb each accounting for more than $1 billion in total value locked (TVL).
Of the three, USDtb — a stablecoin designed to contrast with Ethena’s USDe — has had the fastest growth, adding over 1,000% in TVL in the last month.
USDtb is backed by tokenized BlackRock money-market fund shares whereas USDe uses crypto-assets and perpetual futures strategies for crypto-driven yields.
CoinDesk previously reported that Treasury-backed tokens reached a record $4.2 billion market cap in the first quarter, driven by growth in Ondo Finance’s OUSG and USDY tokens, BlackRock and Securitize’s BUIDL, Franklin Templeton’s BENJI and Superstate’s USTB.
Treasury-backed tokens dominate, according to data aggregator RWA.xyz. The next highest category, tokenized commodities, comes in at $1.26 billion, with Paxos Gold leading with TVL of just over $500 million.
Analysts say this reflects investor preference for safer assets amid bearish crypto sentiment, with T-bills outperforming what’s offered for yield with major DeFi protocols like Compound.
Read more: RWA Tokenization: What Does It Mean to Tokenize Real-World Assets?