Fragmentation across blockchain networks is already imposing a measurable economic cost on the tokenized asset market, with inefficiencies translating into up to $1.3 billion in annual value drag.
In a report sent to Cointelegraph, real-world asset (RWA) data provider RWA.io argued that while blockchains accelerated innovation, they also created walls that trap liquidity and prevent capital from moving freely across networks.
As a result, tokenized RWAs have increasingly behaved like disconnected markets rather than a single, unified financial system. The research found that identical or economically equivalent assets routinely trade at different prices across chains, while moving capital between networks remained costly and complex.
Researchers stated that these inefficiencies hinder the market’s ability to self-correct through arbitrage, a mechanism that facilitates efficient price discovery.
“This fragmentation is the single greatest impediment to the market realizing its multi-trillion-dollar potential,” said Marko Vidrih, co-founder and chief operating officer at RWA.io.
“In traditional finance, the EU-wide SEPA Instant mandate shows how value can move across accounts in seconds. Tokenized assets should be just as frictionless,” Vidrih added.
Price inefficiencies and capital friction across chains
The report states that one of the most obvious consequences of fragmentation is the persistent price divergence for identical assets issued on different blockchains.
According to the report, economically identical tokenized assets often trade at spreads of 1% to 3% across major networks, despite representing claims on the same underlying assets. In traditional finance, arbitrage would quickly eliminate such market gaps.
However, crosschain arbitrage remains unviable due to technical hurdles, fees, delays and operational risks, the report claims. It states that the costs to relocate assets often exceed the price discrepancy, allowing inefficiencies to persist.
Beyond price discovery, RWA.io estimated that moving capital between non-interoperable chains results in losses of 2% to 5% per transaction. This is because of exchange fees, slippage, transfer costs, gas fees and timing risks. In aggregate, the report models an average loss of about 3.5% per capital reallocation.
Should these fragmentation patterns persist, RWA.io estimated that the friction costs could drain between $600 million $1.3 billion from the market annually.
RWA.io projects that tokenized real-world assets could grow into a $16 trillion to $30 trillion market by 2030, and warns that if current inefficiencies persist, the associated value drag would scale with it.
Applying today’s fragmentation-related frictions to a market of that size implies potential annual losses of $30 billion to $75 billion, turning infrastructure shortcomings into a material constraint on long-term growth.
Related: Tokenized stocks may be onchain, but the SEC still wants the keys
Tokenized assets gain traction despite inefficiencies
Despite claims of inefficiency, tokenized assets continue to gain traction across both crypto-native platforms and traditional financial institutions. Just this week, companies have made moves to tokenize equities.
On Tuesday, RWA-focused company Securitize announced plans to launch compliant, onchain stock trading.
On Thursday, crypto exchange Coinbase launched a stock trading feature, allowing users to invest directly in stocks through its application.
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