Tokenization does not automatically make hard-to-trade assets liquid, industry executives said at Paris Blockchain Week, pushing back on the idea that putting private credit, real estate or other illiquid products onchain will by itself create active secondary markets.
Speaking on a panel moderated by Cointelegraph CEO Yana Prikhodchenko, Oya Celiktemur, Ondo Finance sales director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), said there is still a misconception that tokenizing illiquid assets makes them easier to trade. “I think there’s still this idea that tokenizing something illiquid will somehow magically make it a liquid asset, which is just not true,” Celiktemur said, noting assets like real estate and private credit “were never that liquid” to begin with.
Francesco Ranieri Fabracci, head of tokenization expansion at Tether, echoed the point: “It’s not that if you put an asset onchain, it will be liquid,” arguing that a narrower set of instruments — including bonds, money market funds and stablecoins — are more likely to achieve consistent liquidity when tokenized.
The remarks come as the tokenized real-world asset (RWA) sector continues to expand, shifting attention from issuance growth toward whether tokenized products can generate meaningful secondary-market activity and move beyond limited distribution channels.
Data from RWA analytics platform RWA.xyz shows the tokenized RWA market grew from $8.8 billion on April 16, 2025, to roughly $29.9 billion on April 16, 2026, more than tripling in one year. Growth was led by relatively standardized, widely traded assets — tokenized U.S. Treasury debt and commodities made up a large share of the market.
By contrast, categories typically associated with lower liquidity remained comparatively smaller despite strong percentage gains. Tokenized real estate rose from about $35 million to $296 million, while private equity increased from nearly $60 million to $223 million. Other segments, including asset-backed credit and corporate credit, also expanded sharply in absolute terms, indicating rising issuance across a broader range of instruments.
However, market value alone does not prove liquidity: outstanding value can rise because more assets are issued, even if secondary-market trading remains thin.
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