Wall Street’s tokenization boom has a liquidity problem: Axis CEO
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- Kim (Axis CEO) warns that the tokenization boom is focused on issuance rather than tradability, and that current tokenized real‑world asset (RWA) markets lack sufficient trading activity.
- rwa.xyz reports that on‑chain RWA assets grew by roughly $10 billion in 2026, with tokenized Treasuries making up about half of that market and benefiting from US government debt liquidity.
- Chainalysis tracked $40.5 billion of tokenized gold trading volume and notes that the market only began to move in tandem with physical gold prices after mid‑2025.
- RWA.io finds that moving capital between blockchains costs investors 2‑5 % per transaction in fees and slippage, and that the same tokenized fixed‑income asset can trade at different prices across 30 blockchain formats.
- McKinsey & Company projects the tokenized market cap could reach $2 trillion by 2030, while Standard Chartered estimates $30.1 trillion by 2034, underscoring the expected scale of growth.
Why it matters: Investors in tokenized assets face higher transaction costs (2‑5%) and price slippage, while issuers risk duplicated legal work; the liquidity shortfall undermines the $2 trillion market growth forecast for 2030.
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