Short answer: Tokenizing a real-world asset (RWA) means recording ownership of a traditional asset, such as a Treasury bill, a fund share or a loan, as a token on a blockchain. The biggest institutional category is tokenized money market and Treasury funds: regulated or private funds holding short-term government debt, whose shares are issued or recorded on-chain. Below we list the main examples using only figures the issuers publish themselves, each with its date.
What "tokenization" actually changes
The asset itself doesn't change. A tokenized Treasury fund still holds Treasuries, and the fund is still governed by its prospectus and fund law. What changes is the record of ownership and how it moves:
- Transfer: shares can move between approved wallets, sometimes 24/7, rather than only through a transfer agent's books during business hours.
- Settlement: a token can be swapped for a stablecoin or tokenized deposit in one transaction (delivery versus payment).
- Collateral and composability: tokens can be posted as collateral or held inside other on-chain products.
Many tokenized funds limit who can hold them (qualified investors, non-US persons, whitelisted wallets). The token makes ownership programmable. It does not open the fund to everyone.
What is a tokenized money market fund?
A money market fund invests in short-term, high-quality debt such as US Treasury bills and repos and aims to keep a stable value. A tokenized money market fund is the same structure, with the shareholder register kept on, or mirrored to, a blockchain. Investors use them as an on-chain place to park cash that earns a yield, which payment stablecoins generally can't pay to holders. (Under Sec. 4(a)(11) of the GENIUS Act, no permitted or foreign payment stablecoin issuer may pay holders "any form of interest or yield" solely for holding, using or retaining the stablecoin.)
Fund-by-fund: issuer-reported figures
| Product | Issuer / platform | What it holds | Issuer-reported figure | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund (FOBXX, "BENJI") | Franklin Templeton | US government money market fund | Total net assets $667.96 million | Sep 30, 2026 (updated monthly) | Franklin Templeton fund page |
| Ondo USDY | Ondo Finance | Bank deposits and short-term US Treasuries (Ondo's wording); available to non-US individuals and institutions | Value of USDY outstanding $2.06 billion | Oct 15, 2026, 4:59 PM PT | ondo.finance/usdy |
| Ondo OUSG | Ondo Finance | Mainly other tokenized funds (State Street Galaxy SWEEP, BUIDL, BENJI, Fidelity FYOXX) plus USDC and bank deposits; for accredited investors and qualified purchasers | Value of underlying assets $320,080,213 | Oct 16, 2026, 1:00 PM PT | ondo.finance/ousg |
| BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) | BlackRock, issued via Securitize | US dollar liquidity fund | We found no BUIDL-only figure published by the issuer that we could cite, so none is quoted | n/a | securitize.io/blackrock/buidl |
| Securitize platform (all funds) | Securitize | Multiple tokenized funds | AUM of approximately $5 billion (Securitize's rounded, platform-wide figure, not BUIDL alone) | September 2026 | Securitize press release, Oct 8, 2026 |
Do not add these up. The figures use different measures ("total net assets", "outstanding", "underlying assets", platform-wide AUM) and different dates. OUSG holds BUIDL and BENJI (among others), so adding it to them double counts.
Why Crypency doesn't publish a market-wide RWA total
Third-party dashboards define "tokenized RWAs" differently. Some count only tokens that can move freely between wallets on public chains. Others also count assets that are recorded on-chain but transferred only through the issuer's platform. Some include stablecoins. Their totals can't be swapped for one another. Following our sources and methodology, we report what each issuer discloses, with its label and date, so readers can check every number.
How tokenized funds are used
- On-chain treasury: crypto firms, DAOs and funds hold a yield-bearing government-debt exposure without leaving the chain.
- Collateral: tokens can be pledged on trading venues or in lending. On Oct 9, 2026 ESMA opened a call for evidence on tokenised collateral at central counterparties, with responses due 15 Jan 2027 (ESMA press release).
- Settlement leg for stablecoins: some funds offer swaps or redemptions in stablecoins. Check each fund's terms.
- Building blocks: products like OUSG hold other tokenized funds.
Risks and rules
- It's still a fund: market, interest-rate and credit risk of the underlying assets. Read the prospectus or offering documents.
- Eligibility and transfer limits: whitelists, investor qualification, jurisdiction limits.
- Smart contract and chain risk: bugs, chain outages, bridge risk on multi-chain funds.
- Legal title: is the token the legal record of ownership or a mirror of the transfer agent's books? This matters in insolvency.
- Custody: who holds keys and assets? See /industry/custodians.
- Regulation: in the US, registered money market funds are governed by SEC Rule 2a-7 (17 CFR 270.2a-7). In the EU, MiCA does not apply to crypto-assets that qualify as financial instruments (MiCA Art. 2(4)), so those stay under existing financial-services law. The DLT Pilot Regime (Regulation (EU) 2022/858) sets up a pilot for market infrastructure based on distributed ledger technology. How a specific product is classified is a legal question. Get advice.
NFTs are a different thing
Collectible NFTs remain a cultural and gaming niche. Crypency keeps them separate from the institutional RWA categories above.