Grayscale: Canton, Ethereum Lead $30B Tokenization Winners

Grayscale Research identified six blockchain protocols it expects to benefit most from tokenization in a report authored by Zach Pandl and Will Ogden Moore. The firm estimated roughly $30 billion in on-chain tokenized assets and recorded 217% year-over-year growth in the market.

The report compared the $30 billion figure to an estimated $300 trillion global securities market, noting that on-chain tokenized holdings represent about 0.01% of global equity and bond markets. Grayscale broke down the on-chain mix with U.S. Treasuries at about $15 billion, tokenized commodities near $5 billion, and smaller amounts in private credit, funds and equities.

Grayscale listed the protocols it expects to capture tokenization flows: Canton, Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche, BNB Chain and Chainlink. The report described networks built for institutional use and public blockchains as different types of infrastructure that could attract different kinds of tokenized assets.

Canton was highlighted as the near-term leader for institutional tokenization. Data from RWA.xyz cited in the report shows Canton holding a 93.8% share of on-chain represented real-world asset value and hosting more than $390 billion in represented RWA value. Grayscale noted its $30 billion estimate refers to currently active tokenized assets, a different measurement from the represented-value figures.

Ethereum was identified as a major long-term beneficiary. The report attributed more than 54% of distributed RWA market share to Ethereum, and estimated roughly $16 billion in tokenized assets on the network and about $50 billion in decentralized finance total value locked. The report pointed to Ethereum’s larger developer base, number of applications and market capitalization as factors in its position.

Solana was noted for faster, lower-cost transactions and higher throughput, with more than $2 billion in tokenized assets on-chain. Grayscale suggested those attributes may suit retail-focused use cases such as on-chain consumer stock trading. Chainlink was described as infrastructure that supports tokenized assets through services like price oracles and other data feeds. Avalanche and BNB Chain were listed as additional potential beneficiaries.

The report included a forward-looking statement: “Over time, we believe much of the ~$300 trillion securities market — along with other types of assets like real estate — will migrate on-chain.” Geoff Kendrick of Standard Chartered offered a near-term view that Ethereum is likely to attract traditional finance activity as banks and other financial firms build on blockchains.

Grayscale characterized tokenization as an early-stage area of digital assets with current on-chain activity concentrated in fixed income and commodities while other securities categories remain limited. The report aims to identify which blockchains could receive tokenization flows as more assets and intermediaries move on-chain.