Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest Predicts Tokenized Assets Could Skyrocket to $11 Trillion

Forget gold—digital tokens are the new vault. Ark Invest, the forward-thinking fund led by Cathie Wood, just dropped a bombshell projection: the market for tokenized real-world assets could balloon to a staggering $11 trillion.

Why This Isn't Just Another Crypto Hype Cycle

This isn't about speculative memecoins. We're talking about stocks, bonds, real estate, and commodities getting a blockchain makeover. The process slices traditional assets into digital fragments—making everything from fine art to treasury bills tradable 24/7 on a global ledger. It cuts out the usual middlemen, bypasses archaic settlement systems, and unlocks liquidity in markets that have been frozen for decades.

The $11 Trillion Question

Hitting that eleven-figure mark means Wall Street's old guard finally swallows its pride and plugs into the chain. It requires regulators to move faster than a glacial pace—a classic bottleneck where innovation meets bureaucracy. The projection hinges on mass adoption by institutional players who still view crypto with a mix of fear and utter confusion.

The Finance World's Inevitable Pivot

Resistance is futile. The efficiency gains are too glaring to ignore. Tokenization slashes costs, automates compliance, and creates entirely new financial products. While traditional finance debates committee structures, blockchain networks are building the rails for the next era of capital markets—one where your apartment or corporate bond can be traded as easily as an email.

The race is on. Legacy systems are looking increasingly like relics, while tokenization quietly builds the infrastructure for a radically more open and efficient financial system. Just don't expect the old guard to admit they're playing catch-up—after all, admitting you're obsolete is bad for the quarterly earnings call.

Ark Invest sees tokenized assets jump +50,000%

The current real-world tokenized asset market is $22.25 billion based on data collected from RWA[dot]xyz. At the moment, there are 641,852 holders of real-world assets.

Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest predicts tokenized assets will grow quickly and exceed $11 trillion by 2030. This means the RWAs market must grow by more than 50,000% in less than 5 years.

“Thanks to the regulatory clarity associated with the GENIUS Act, stablecoin activity surged to record highs,” said the report. 

It added that several companies and institutions plan to create in-house stablecoins. Moreover, BlackRock is preparing a tokenization platform using proprietary technology.

A tokenized asset is a digital FORM of a financial instrument that is traded on a blockchain. Tokenization transforms asset trading. It lowers costs, speeds up settlements and increases liquidity. 

Fractional ownership becomes possible with tokenization. And traders gain global access to financial products around the clock.

Ark observed that tokenized assets are mainly composed of sovereign debt, especially U.S. Treasuries. The firm predicts that bank deposits and global public equities will make up a bigger portion of tokenized value in the next five years as institutions expand past pilot programs.

“While Sovereign Debt dominates tokenization today, Bank Deposits and Global Public Equities are likely to MOVE a greater share of value onchain relative to their current share during the next 5 years,” wrote Ark Invest researchers.

Ark projects tokenized assets will total $11 trillion by 2030. This WOULD equal around 1.38% of all global financial assets. Most global value stays off-chain, which makes traditional assets the biggest driver for on-chain growth.

Leading firms project tokenization at trillions

Several leading firms and consultancies have projected that tokenization could reach a multi-trillion-dollar scale.

TD Cowen projects on-chain assets may reach $100 trillion by 2030.

Standard Chartered predicts tokenized real-world assets may hit $30.1 trillion by 2034. The bank added that trade finance assets may rank among the top three tokenized assets worldwide, making up 16% of the total.

The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Ripple report predicts tokenized assets may reach nearly $19 trillion by 2033. Roland Berger predicts that tokenized real-world asset markets will grow to $10.9 trillion by 2030.

Citi predicts tokenized digital securities could reach $4 trillion, while central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) may total $5 trillion in major economies.

In 2025, the market value of tokenized real-world assets ROSE by 208% to reach $18.9 billion. This year, financial institutions continue to expand their exposure to the tokenized assets market.

The New York Stock Exchange announced plans to create a blockchain platform for 24/7 trading of tokenized stocks and ETFs, according to a recent report by Cryptopolitan. The platform will enable a new NYSE venue for trading tokenized shares. These shares will be interchangeable with traditional securities and include tokens issued as digital securities.

Custody bank State Street announced last week that it is launching a digital-asset platform for money-market funds, ETFs, and cash products like tokenized deposits and stablecoins. The platform revealed features for wallet management, custody, and cash functions that work on both private and public permissioned blockchain networks.

Last week, the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) introduced a Digital Settlement House (DiSH). It’s a new open-access digital settlement platform, allowing instant, automated settlement between independent payment networks, on-chain and off-chain.

The LSEG DiSH service will use commercial bank deposits on the DiSH ledger (DiSH Cash). This will allow 24/7 instant transfer of bank money across currencies and regions, supporting PVP and DVP for real cash settlement in FX and digital asset trades.

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