Second Half of the RWA Issuance Competition: Amid the Utilization Dilemma, Tens of Billions of On-Chain Assets Await Awakening

The RWA market reached a record $32 billion in July, yet data reveals that nearly 90% of these assets remain dormant on-chain, failing to participate in DeFi lending or collateralization. Reports from BeInCrypto Intelligence and RWA.xyz indicate that over 70% of tokenized assets saw no on-chain transfers within a week. While major issuers like Securitize, which manages BlackRock’s BUIDL fund, have achieved massive scale, their DeFi utilization rates remain extremely low at approximately 0.7%. In contrast, credit-focused protocols like Maple demonstrate significantly higher utilization rates of 62% because their business models are inherently tied to lending activities. This divergence highlights a structural tension between compliant, permissioned asset issuance and the permissionless nature of DeFi protocols. Regulatory requirements, such as KYC whitelisting, prevent many tokenized securities from entering public lending pools, effectively limiting their utility. However, industry experts view this dormancy as a necessary transitional phase, as the market shifts focus from simple issuance to building the liquidity infrastructure required for secondary market depth and broader asset integration.