RWA
Also: Real-World Assets · tokenisation
Assets with an off-chain legal claim behind them — treasury bills, money-market funds, receivables — issued and settled as tokens.
The token is a settlement wrapper. The thing owned is still a claim enforced by a legal system, and its value comes from that claim rather than from the chain it moves on.
What the sector actually consists of
Tokenised real-world assets stood at $38.2 billion on 23 August 2026, close to double the $20.6 billion of a year earlier. United States treasury debt accounts for $15.6 billion of that.
Which is the honest description: mostly government paper with a settlement layer attached. The growth is real and the underlying asset is the least exotic available, which is a reasonable place for a category to build from.
Why a chain halt matters differently here
For an asset whose value is a legal claim, a network that can be stopped may be an advantage rather than a defect. Continuing to move while the ledger is in doubt helps nobody. The cost is that a chain which can be halted has someone who can halt it, and that someone becomes identified.