The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that the growth of the RWA market could heighten risks to the global financial system and accelerate the spread of crises.
Experts at the institution emphasized that tokenization is not merely a technological upgrade but a fundamental transformation of financial architecture. Transferring assets such as stocks, bonds, and monetary instruments to the blockchain eliminates intermediaries, settlement delays, and reduces costs, but simultaneously alters the nature of risks.
Acceleration of Crises
Experts consider the speed of operations as one of the key threats. Instant settlements deprive the system of traditional “buffers”—the time that previously allowed regulators and market participants to respond to stressful events.
Potentially, this leads to crises that can:
- develop more rapidly;
- intensify due to process automation;
- leave fewer opportunities for intervention and mitigation.
Other Sources of Instability
The IMF identified several additional risks:
- liquidity fragmentation across different blockchain platforms;
- infrastructure concentration, where a failure in one network could affect the entire market;
- risk transfer from the banking system to smart contracts and digital ledgers;
- unpredictable capital flows, especially given global access to tokenized assets.
Experts pointed to the widespread use of stablecoins for operations in the RWA segment. These coins act as a link to the crypto market, and their reliability depends on reserves and redemption mechanisms. This makes them vulnerable in the event of mass withdrawals under stress conditions.
The IMF also noted the risks of spreading tokenized assets and stablecoins to developing economies. According to the fund’s specialists, this trend potentially poses threats of:
- substituting national currencies;
- increasing volatility of cross-border capital flows;
- reducing the effectiveness of central banks’ monetary policies.
Rapid Growth
The IMF stressed that while tokenization can enhance market efficiency, without coordinated regulation and robust infrastructure, it could become a source of systemic risks.
According to DeFi Llama, the RWA segment already exceeds $23.4 billion (excluding stablecoins). The market is predominantly composed of money market funds (~56%) and tokenized precious metals (~33.5%).
In March, analysts noted that the annual growth of the tokenized stock market reached 2900%. The trend was supported by major stock exchanges NYSE and Nasdaq.
Earlier, Aave founder Stani Kulechov predicted that the RWA segment could expand to $50 trillion thanks to the digitization of so-called “abundance assets.”