Crypto Market Slumps as 2025 Ends, but One Sector Defies the Downturn

The crypto market’s downward trend continued today, with total market capitalization falling 3.17% over the past month amid persistent sell-offs. However, one sector has bucked the trend: tokenized real-world assets (RWAs).

The distributed asset value has continued to climb, reaching a new all-time high despite unfavorable market conditions.

Bitcoin Sell-Off Continues as RWA Sector Largely Unaffected

According to data from RWA.xyz, the sector now holds $19.06 billion in distributed asset value. This represents a 4.59% appreciation over the past month.

Real World Assets Value Growth. Source: RWA.xyz

At the same time, the represented asset value totals $414.6 billion, primarily driven by the Canton Network’s management of $395.2 billion in institutional assets.

The number of asset holders has also increased, rising 7.23% to 583,821. Stablecoins continue to dominate the sector, with a total value of $299.17 billion and 212.54 million holders. This represents a 4.12% increase over the same period.

Kevin Rusher, founder of RAAC, a RWA lending and borrowing ecosystem, said that market attention within the crypto sector remains largely focused on Bitcoin’s price, which has continued to decline. He noted that recent developments suggest selling pressure may persist.

“As usual, most attention within the crypto sector is being paid to the price of bitcoin, which continues to slide its way out of 2025 as if glued to a sled….Yesterday’s news that Strategy has paused BTC buying and put over $700 million into cash indicates, this selling is likely to continue. Inflows into bitcoin also declined markedly this year compared to last year, at $27.2 billion compared to $41.6 billion in 2024,” Rusher stated.

Tokenized Gold Emerges as a Key Growth Driver

Despite this broader weakness, Rusher emphasized that selling pressure has not spilled over into the tokenized RWA sector. He pointed out that the segment remains largely overlooked by much of the crypto market, even as it delivers some of the strongest returns this year.

The growth has been fueled in part by a global surge in demand for gold. The precious metal continues to hit new all-time highs. Tokenized versions of the metal have seen particularly strong momentum in response.

“Indeed, tokenized gold is up 227% from $1 billion to over $3.27 billion year to date, while its sector – RWA commodities – is one of the year’s key growth spots. Beginning 2025 with nothing more than four gold products, this sector is ending it with 15 products spread across not just gold, but now also oil, wheat, platinum, soy, and more,” the executive highlighted.

Additionally, Shehram Khattak, General Counsel at Trust Wallet, noted that tokenized gold could emerge as a strong competitor to Bitcoin.

“We’re in a situation where you’re starting to think about, like, real-world assets, for example, tokenizing assets, once you get tokenized gold, and if it’s tokenized in an appropriate way, that’s a big caveat. Because Bitcoin is heavily used as a store of value. And if that’s the case, then tokenized gold becomes quite a heavy competitor to Bitcoin,” he remarked.

Meanwhile, according to Rusher, the expansion in the sector is being driven not just by significant institutional demand but also by increasing retail participation. He noted that retail investors are turning to stable assets on-chain, rather than exiting the market entirely during periods of heightened volatility.

“The volatile year that we’ve seen has really shaped the sector and made it a robust and fertile growth space. And this is an incredibly positive indicator for the growth of crypto as a whole as RWA’s will provide a firm footing that means liquidity will stay in crypto even when time gets tough. RWA’s are absolutely the future of crypto and deserve much more attention to,” he added.

Tokenization Market Could Reach $100 Billion by 2026

Looking ahead, Jesse Knutson, Head of Operations at Bitfinex Securities, has forecasted that the tokenization market as a whole will grow to at least $100 billion by the end of 2026.

He expects tokenized fixed-income products to remain the dominant segment in the near term, while tokenized equities gradually increase their share of total tokenized assets.

Knutson added that the continued tokenization of equities is likely to attract a larger number of retail participants, helping to broaden and deepen the investor base for tokenized assets.

“Tokenization can open up regulated access to investment opportunities like micro financing bonds, litigation finance products, or Bitcoin hashrate contracts, assets that are not available on traditional markets. We expect this momentum to continue into 2026, with more alternative assets, innovative Bitcoin-mining backed fixed income products, tokenised ETFs,” he mentioned to BeInCrypto.

Previously, Plume CEO Chris Yin also projected a 10–20x expansion in both value and users in 2026, even under conservative assumptions. Thus, as the RWA space continues to expand, its performance in 2026 will likely be a key trend to watch.

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