RWA Assets Used in DeFi Approach $4 Billion as Onchain Utilization Reaches 11.5%

Active use remains a fraction of total issuance

Across the broader market, total tokenized RWA issuance stands at $34.55 billion. Based on DefiLlama’s active-deployment measure, about 11.5% of that supply is currently put to work onchain.

That distinction matters because issuance alone does not show whether tokenized assets are functioning as usable building blocks in crypto credit and liquidity markets. The active total is intended to reflect assets that have moved beyond settlement and custody functions into practical DeFi use.

Treasury products dominate issuance but see little DeFi activity

Some of the largest tokenized treasury products account for substantial issuance while contributing little to DeFi activity. BlackRock’s BUIDL has $2.74 billion issued, but only around $18 million appears in DeFi, implying a utilization rate of 0.66% as of Aug. 18. Franklin Templeton’s BENJI shows zero utilization by the same measure.

The source article says the structure of these products helps explain the gap. They were designed for institutional cash management and use whitelisted transfers, while buyers are mainly seeking Treasury-bill yield rather than collateral utility inside lending markets. In that setup, tokenization can improve settlement without necessarily making the assets active in DeFi.

Private credit and reinsurance account for most of the deployed capital

Private credit is the largest category within actively deployed RWAs, with $2.13 billion of the $3.98 billion total. Bonds contribute $799.88 million, while reinsurance adds $406.45 million.

Several individual products post very high utilization rates. Janus Henderson’s Anemoy AAA CLO fund stands at 97.53% utilization on $421.88 million. Re Protocol’s reUSD is at 97.03% on $184.67 million, and Maple’s syrupUSDT is at 91%. Syrup USDG shows 153.37% utilization on $181.32 million of DeFi TVL, which the source says suggests the same token is being counted across multiple venues as it is lent, borrowed, and redeposited.

The article attributes this stronger activity to the way these assets fit existing collateral models in DeFi. A rated CLO fund or a reinsurance token tied to a yield stream may be easier for lenders to price and accept than a whitelisted treasury fund intended mainly for institutional holders.

Smaller categories remain limited

Below the leading segments, active RWA deployment appears much smaller and, in the source article’s framing, more experimental than structural. Precious metals account for $311.96 million in active TVL, public equities for $150.5 million, and equity indices for $31.95 million.

Commodity exposure is still minimal by comparison. Oil registers $1.42 million in active TVL, while natural gas stands at just $315.

The next signal is whether utilization rises with issuance

The source article argues that utilization, rather than issuance alone, is the figure to watch as the tokenized asset market expands. Total issuance of $34.55 billion is already sizeable, but the key question is whether future growth behaves more like large treasury funds that mostly stay idle in DeFi or like products that are widely reused as collateral.

For now, the confirmed data point is that active RWA deployment is nearing the $4 billion mark. The next meaningful step will be whether the share of tokenized assets used onchain increases from the current 11.5% as overall issuance continues to grow.