RWAs displace DEXs to claim fifth spot in DeFi TVL rankings

According to data from DefiLlama, real-world assets (RWAs) have overtaken decentralized exchanges (DEXs) to become the fifth-largest category in DeFi by TVL behind lending, liquid staking, bridging, and restaking. 

The real-world asset TVL surge, happening amid higher institutional interest, is expected to get even hotter next year.

Real-world asset (RWA) protocols not only overtook decentralized exchanges (DEXs) to become the fifth-largest category by total value locked (TVL), according to DefiLlama, but they now account for about $17 billion in TVL, up from $12 billion in Q4 2024.

The growth has impressed many, including those at DefiLlama, who noted that at the start of the year, RWAs weren’t even in the top 10 categories.

How did RWAs do in 2025 DeFi?

According to Vincent Liu, chief investment officer at Kronos Research, the RWA growth can be linked to “balance-sheet incentives rather than experimentation,” as higher-for-longer rates have made tokenized Treasurys and private credit attractive as on-chain, yield-bearing assets.

All that is happening amid improving regulatory clarity that is lowering friction for institutional allocators. Other experts stamped Liu’s sentiments, also linking the growth of the RWA sector primarily to private credit and tokenized Treasurys.

Tokenized US Treasurys are especially an investor favorite. It has emerged as a gateway product, with platforms like the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) and similar funds pushing the combined tokenized Treasury segment above the multi‑billion‑dollar mark as of December 2025.

Liu now believes that the constraint is no longer about tokenization itself and has become more about liquidity and the marriage of crypto with TradFi.

In 2026, he says attention needs to shift from headline TVL to factors like who owns issuance, where RWAs get deployed as collateral, and which venues capture secondary market flows.

As Cryptopolitan reported during the weekend, RWAs were one of the few sectors that are actually in the green in terms of token prices in 2025, where BTC and ETH have relinquished all-time high gains made before the infamous October leverage capitulation.

Gold and silver have also contributed to the RWA rally

According to reports, another factor contributing to the successful RWAs this year has been the rally of critical metals like gold and silver, which have been attracting investors worried about inflation and dollar debasement.

Those rallies in gold and silver this year have reportedly encouraged more capital to invest in tokenized commodities. According to recent data, the market cap of tokenized commodities now nears $4 billion, led by gold products such as Tether Gold and Paxos Gold.

The trends set by gold and silver have transformed the tokenized commodities sector from niche RWAs to macro-relevant assets with real demand. And since they are supported by clearer pricing and custody standards, they easily plug into DeFi and institutional systems, and it has worked well, clearly.

Another key signal driving the rally has been interoperability. Liu believes true acceleration will happen when tokenized commodities no longer function as isolated products and have been given the ability to move seamlessly across venues and chains.