RWA's TVL surpasses DEX, becoming the fifth largest sector in DeFi.

[RWA Sector Surpasses DEX in TVL, Becoming the Fifth Largest DeFi Category] According to Mars Finance, on December 29th, data shows that Real-World Assets (RWA) has become one of the fastest-growing DeFi sectors in 2025. DefiLlama reports that RWA has jumped to the fifth largest category in DeFi by TVL, surpassing DEX. Currently, RWA TVL is approximately $17 billion, a significant increase from approximately $12 billion in Q4 2024. DefiLlama points out that at the beginning of the year, RWA hadn't even entered the top ten DeFi sectors, demonstrating its rapid evolution from a fringe experiment to core DeFi infrastructure. Vincent Liu, Chief Investment Officer of Kronos Research, stated that RWA growth is primarily driven by balance sheet demand rather than conceptual experiments. In an environment where "high interest rates persist longer," tokenized US Treasury bonds and private lending have become attractive on-chain yield assets, while increased regulatory clarity has reduced friction for institutional entry. Structurally, Ethereum remains the primary platform for RWA issuance and settlement, while public chains such as BNB Chain, Avalanche, Solana, Polygon, and Arbitrum occupy a smaller share. Meanwhile, permissioned networks like Canton Network dominate the institutional market. Analysts believe that tokenized US Treasury bonds remain the core entry point for RWA, and with rising gold and silver prices, tokenized commodities are attracting more funds. RWA is expected to move further from a "yield narrative" to macro-level assets and neutral collateral by 2026.