4 Minutes
Citi projects explosive growth for tokenized securities
Citi estimates that the tokenized securities market — real-world assets (RWA) and traditional securities represented on blockchain ledgers — could expand from roughly $17 billion today to a $5.5 trillion market by 2030 in its base case. The bank offers a conservative scenario of $2.7 trillion and an aggressive upside of $8.2 trillion depending on adoption pace across financial institutions, asset managers, and market infrastructure providers.
Forecast scope and methodology
The bank’s Tokenization 2030: Wall Street On-Chain report covers asset classes that can be moved on-chain, including U.S. Treasury bills, tokenized stocks, funds, and other regulated financial products. Citi’s analysis reflects both demand-side drivers — such as investor appetite and stablecoin use for settlement — and supply-side changes like custody solutions, compliance frameworks, and market structure upgrades.
Which assets will lead tokenization?
Citi singles out Treasury bills and public equities as primary growth engines. The bank models about 10% of the U.S. Treasury bill market becoming tokenized by 2030 and expects roughly 3% of U.S. publicly listed equities to appear in tokenized form. Those shifts matter because stablecoins already hold sizable reserves in short-term U.S. debt, and stablecoin expansion could translate into nearly $1 trillion of additional demand for Treasuries.
On the equities side, Citi notes that a modest migration of everyday U.S. retail activity toward digital trading platforms could yield multi-trillion-dollar demand for tokenized stocks — the bank’s scenario showing as much as $2.6 trillion of potential capital moving on-chain if retail adoption reaches 10%.
Why stablecoins and tokenized deposits matter
Stablecoins function as the digital cash layer that enables faster on-chain settlement and around-the-clock trading. Citi ties the rise of tokenized deposits and digital cash rails to a new era of “always-on” finance, where investors can switch between fiat and tokenized assets without waiting for legacy settlement windows. That shift reduces settlement risk and shortens trade finality, provided robust compliance, custody, and legal frameworks are in place.
Market context and competing projections
The tokenization theme is already gaining traction: recent industry estimates placed the broader RWA sector near $31 billion to $34 billion in 2026 when excluding stablecoins. Ethereum remains a dominant settlement layer for many tokenized offerings, supported by major asset managers and specialized tokenization firms launching products that bridge traditional finance and crypto infrastructure.
Other institutions have published complementary forecasts. For example, Standard Chartered has suggested tokenized assets could hit roughly $4 trillion by the end of 2028 when combining stablecoin reserves and tokenized real-world assets — a shorter time horizon than Citi’s 2030 projection but aligned in direction.
Regulatory, custody, and legal integration are critical
Citi emphasizes that technical tokenization must be paired with legal ownership records. Tokenized securities should not merely mirror prices of off-chain assets; they must integrate with custody solutions, registrar systems, and regulatory-compliant processes to ensure enforceability and investor protection. Market participants will need clearer rules, improved custody primitives, and interoperable settlement rails to unlock the full $5.5 trillion opportunity.
Implications for Wall Street and crypto markets
If Citi’s base-case forecast materializes, tokenization will position blockchain rails at the center of institutional market structure — streamlining settlement, extending trading hours, and broadening access to assets and liquidity. For crypto-native participants and traditional finance firms alike, the outlook highlights product innovation areas: tokenized Treasuries, digital equities, stablecoin liquidity provisioning, and compliant custody services.
For investors and institutions following the tokenization trend, the next few years will be about migration from proofs of concept to scalable, legally sound platforms that can handle institutional volumes and regulatory scrutiny. Citi’s projection underlines that tokenized securities are moving from novelty to mainstream strategy within Wall Street’s digital-asset roadmaps.
Source: crypto
Comments
Marius
Promising but feels overhyped. Infrastructure, legal clarity and custodial trust need work. If that moves fast maybe, otherwise meh
coinpilot
Wait, $5.5T by 2030?? Sounds wild. Where's the legal backbone though? how will custody, registrars and regs catch up? Stablecoins help, but still risky, imo
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