Tokenized Assets Market Could Reach $18.9 Trillion by 2033, Says Ripple and BCG

Ripple and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) have projected that the market for tokenized financial instruments, or real-world assets (RWAs), could reach $18.9 trillion by 2033. This projection is based on the technology's growth nearing a "tipping point." The report suggests an average 53% compound annual growth rate (CAGR), positioning it between a conservative scenario of $12 trillion and a more optimistic projection of $23.4 trillion in tokenized assets over the next eight years.

Tokenization involves using blockchain technology to record ownership and transfer assets such as securities, commodities, and real estate. This sector is gaining significant traction in the crypto industry, with traditional financial firms exploring tokenization to achieve efficiency gains, faster and cheaper settlements, and around-the-clock transactions. For instance, JPMorgan’s Kinexys platform has already processed over $1.5 trillion in tokenized transactions, while BlackRock’s tokenized U.S. dollar money market fund (BUIDL), issued with tokenization firm Securitize, nears $2 billion in assets under management and is increasingly being used in decentralized finance (DeFi).

According to Martijn Siebrand, Digital Assets Program Manager at ABN AMRO, the technology is ready, regulation is evolving, and foundational use cases are already in the market. The report highlights tokenized government bonds, such as U.S. Treasuries, as an early success. These bonds allow corporate treasurers to seamlessly shift idle cash into tokenized short-term government bonds from digital wallets without intermediaries, managing liquidity in real time and around the clock. Private credit and carbon markets are also identified as sectors with significant potential for tokenization, offering clearer pricing, fractional ownership, and enhanced transparency and traceability of emissions credits.

Despite the growth potential, the report identifies several key barriers to broader adoption, including fragmented infrastructure, limited interoperability across platforms, uneven regulatory progress, inconsistent custody frameworks, and a lack of smart contract standardization. Most tokenized assets today settle in isolation, with off-chain cash legs limiting efficiency gains. Tokenized asset markets struggle to unlock secondary liquidity without shared delivery-versus-payment (DvP) standards. Regulatory clarity varies significantly by region, with some regions like Switzerland, the EU, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates having developed comprehensive legal frameworks, while others like India and China remain restrictive or undefined. This uneven progress complicates cross-border operations and forces firms to tailor infrastructure market-by-market.

Early adopters are expanding rapidly, with the report identifying three phases of tokenization: low-risk adoption of familiar instruments like bonds and funds, expansion into complex products such as private credit and real estate, and full market transformation, including illiquid assets like infrastructure and private equity. Most firms are currently in the first or second phase, with scalability hinging on regulatory alignment and infrastructure maturity. Cost is becoming less of a constraint for firms, with focused tokenization projects launching for under $2 million, while end-to-end integrations can cost up to $100 million for large institutions. Tokenization can unlock meaningful savings for processes such as bond issuances, real estate fund tokenization, and collateral management, driving further growth.

However, without industry-wide coordinated action, the same silos and fragmentation that tokenization seeks to eliminate could reemerge in digital form. Jorgen Ouaknine, global head of innovation and digital assets at Euroclear, a global financial market infrastructure provider, emphasized the need for coordinated efforts to avoid this outcome. The report underscores the potential for tokenization to revolutionize the financial industry, but it also highlights the challenges that must be overcome to achieve widespread adoption and realize the full benefits of this technology.