The total value of real-world assets (RWAs) on the Arbitrum network has surged over 1,000-fold since the start of 2024.

From a modest $100,000 to $200,000 in early January last year, Arbitrum now hosts more than $200 million in tokenized RWAs. This reflects one of the most explosive growth trajectories in decentralized finance (DeFi) this year.

RWA Total Value on Arbitrum Increases 1,000X

This exponential expansion is largely attributed to Arbitrum DAO’s Stable Treasury Endowment Program (STEP), which is currently in its 2.0 phase. The program allocated 85 million ARB tokens to support stable, liquid, yield-generating RWAs.

“The DAO just approved 35M ARB for RWAs via STEP 2.0. This brings the total RWA investments from the DAO treasury to 85M ARB, one of the largest DAO-led RWA allocations in Web3,” Arbitrum said in February.

The strategy aims to reduce the DAO’s exposure to volatile native crypto assets and help build a more resilient treasury, and it appears to be yielding results.

US Treasuries dominate Arbitrum’s RWA ecosystem, making up 97% of the sector. Franklin Templeton’s BENJI leads the pack, which holds a 36% market share, followed by SPIKO’s European treasuries, accounting for 18%.

This diversification beyond US-centric instruments is a healthy sign for global institutional engagement with Arbitrum.

“The eco welcomes global diversification beyond US instruments,” The Learning Pill remarked.

New entrants like Dinari have also added to the ecosystem’s momentum, offering tokenized versions of traditional securities. These include stocks, ETFs (exchange-traded funds), and REITs via its dShares platform.

More than 18 tokenized RWA products live on Arbitrum, covering various asset classes from bonds to real estate. Arbitrum itself highlighted this institutional influx on X (Twitter)

“RWA and Stablecoin adoption on Arbitrum has been monumental! Some of the largest institutions are bringing their tokenized assets to the land of liquidity with $4.7 billion in Stablecoins and over $214 million in RWAs already onchain,” the network stated.

Teams like Securitize, DigiFT, and SPIKO are tokenizing everything from sovereign debt to real estate portfolios, signaling the early formation of a new financial substrate.

Yet, despite the strong ecosystem development, ARB, the network’s native token, is down 88% from its all-time high.

Further downside pressure looms, with a 92.63 million ARB token unlock imminent. With only 46% of the total supply currently in circulation, concerns about dilution and lack of direct token accrual from RWA growth remain key market overhangs.

Tokenized RWA Cross $11 Billion, Ethereum Dominates Onchain Finance Frontier

Beyond Arbitrum, the broader real-world asset sector has quietly become one of the most significant trends in crypto, even if it does not dominate headlines.

According to DeFiLlama, on-chain RWAs have surpassed $11.169 billion in total value locked, up 2.5X over the past year.

Tokenized US Treasuries and tokenized gold are the engines behind this boom. BlackRock’s BUIDL fund now holds over $2.38 billion in tokenized Treasuries alone. Meanwhile, blockchain-based gold assets, driven by both market demand and rising metal prices, have crossed $1.2 billion, according to a recent BeInCrypto report.

Ethereum remains in the frontline, hosting approximately 80% of all on-chain RWAs. As TradFi giants seek programmable exposure to dollar yields and real assets, Ethereum offers the infrastructure and liquidity needed to bridge capital markets with blockchain rails.

“The top RWA protocols aren’t chasing crypto narratives. They are offering something TradFi understands: yield, dollar exposure, and gold. This is not the future of DeFi. It’s the future of finance,” DeFi analyst Patrick Scott observed.

Builders point out that adoption is already deeply embedded in on-chain-native applications like Pendle, Morpho, Frax, and various automated market makers (AMMs) and staking layers. The “real yield” thesis has arrived, coded into the new financial system’s base layer.

“The TradFi narrative is nice, but the adoption so far is on-chain-native,” DeFi builder Artem Tolkachev noted.

While flashy DeFi experiments often mimic casinos, RWAs show that slow, stable, and scalable wins the race.

The next frontier lies in improving access, liquidity, and incentives, particularly on non-Ethereum chains like Arbitrum, where the technical groundwork is strong, but market confidence remains in flux.

Tokenized RWAs may not be the loudest narrative in crypto, but they are becoming its most consequential.

“Onchain RWAs are quietly becoming the backbone of future finance, not hype, just real value TradFi gets: yield, dollars, and gold,” Validatus.com quipped.

In Q1 2025, Ethereum solidified its leading position in the decentralized application (DApp) platform sector, generating $1.021 billion in fee revenue. 

Other networks such as Base (Coinbase’s Layer-2), BNB Chain, Arbitrum, and Avalanche C-Chain also recorded significant revenue but lagged far behind Ethereum.

Fee Revenue Landscape Among Blockchains

According to Token Terminal, Ethereum maintained its top position among DApp platforms, with DApp fee revenue reaching $1.021 billion in Q1 2025. This figure highlights Ethereum’s dominance and strong growth within the DApp ecosystem. 

Base, a Coinbase Layer-2 network, ranked second with $193 million in DApp fee revenue, showing notable growth but still trailing Ethereum. BNB Chain followed in third with $170 million, Arbitrum with $73.8 million, and Avalanche C-Chain in fifth with $27.68 million.

DApp fee revenue is a key metric for measuring a blockchain’s activity and user value. On Ethereum, popular DApps include DeFi protocols like Uniswap and Aave, NFT platforms like OpenSea, blockchain games, and social applications. The growth in Ethereum’s DApp fee revenue indicates sustained high demand for these applications despite competition from other networks and often high transaction costs (gas fees) on the mainnet.

Why Ethereum Leads

Several factors explain Ethereum’s continued leadership in DApp fee revenue. Firstly, Ethereum was the first blockchain to support smart contracts, laying the foundation for its DApp ecosystem. According to DappRadar data, Ethereum remains the blockchain with the largest DApps, hosting over 4,983 active DApps, below the BNB Chain.

Second, Ethereum’s high security and reliability make it the preferred choice for developers and users. Despite high mainnet transaction costs, Ethereum has improved performance through upgrades like Dencun (implemented in 2024), which reduced costs on Layer-2 networks and enhanced scalability.

Third, Ethereum’s DeFi ecosystem remains a primary driver of fee revenue. According to DefiLlama, the Total Value Locked (TVL) in Ethereum’s DeFi protocols reached $46 billion, representing 51% of the total TVL in the DeFi market.

While Ethereum leads, other networks are also showing significant growth. According to Token Terminal, Base, Coinbase’s Layer-2, generated $193 million in DApp fee revenue, a 45% increase from Q4 2024.

BNB Chain, with $170 million, remains a strong competitor due to low costs and a diverse DApp ecosystem, including platforms like PancakeSwap. Arbitrum, another Ethereum Layer-2, recorded $73.8 million, driven by the expansion of DeFi and blockchain gaming DApps. With $27.68 million, Avalanche C-Chain excels in finance and NFTs but cannot match Ethereum’s scale.