Grayscale Names Six Protocols Set to Win the Tokenization Megatrend

Grayscale Research has identified six blockchain protocols it sees as the biggest winners of the tokenization megatrend.

The asset manager highlighted that the tokenized asset market has expanded by 217% year-over-year. Yet it accounts for only roughly 0.01% of global equity and bond markets today, suggesting potential for further growth.

Why Grayscale Sees Tokenization as a Major Opportunity

Tokenized assets total around $30 billion, a fraction of the roughly $300 trillion securities market. US Treasuries lead the on-chain mix at about $15 billion, followed by tokenized commodities at about $5 billion. Smaller categories include private credit, funds, and equities.

In a recent report, Zach Pandl, Head of Research, and Will Ogden Moore frame the gap as an unfilled runway in the digital asset space.

“Over time, we believe much of the ~$300 trillion securities market — along with other types of assets like real estate — will migrate onchain,” the report read.

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Canton Leads Near-Term, Ethereum and Solana Take the Long Game

The report argued that tokenization is set to reshape capital markets as more assets and transactions migrate on-chain. The megatrend is still in its early innings and stands to drive significant value to the blockchains underpinning this shift.

“We believe the protocols best positioned to benefit from the tokenization megatrend include Ethereum, Solana, Canton, Avalanche, BNB Chain, and Chainlink,” the researchers wrote. 

The report first pointed to Canton. According to data from RWA.xyz, the network commands a 93.8% share of the total on-chain represented RWA value and hosts more than $390 billion in tokenized asset value, by far the largest pool of capital in the sector.

Grayscale Research argues that institution-focused networks like Canton are likely to lead in the near term. Unlike public blockchains, these networks are built to mirror how traditional finance already operates, which could ease the transition for users and intermediaries. Canton also offers privacy by default, a feature that’s non-negotiable for most institutional use cases.

Next is Ethereum, which accounts for more than 54% of the distributed RWA market share. It hosts roughly $16 billion in tokenized assets and around $50 billion in Decentralized Finance (DeFi) total value locked.

Insights from BeInCrypto’s Expert Council also pointed to Ethereum as a key beneficiary of TradFi flows.

“I think Ethereum probably wins for the next little while on the back of TradFi getting involved. As banks and other build stuff on the blockchain space, it’s almost all going to happen on Ethereum for the next couple of years, I think,” said Geoff Kendrick from Standard Chartered.

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Solana trails with over $2 billion in asset value. In addition, the blockchain offers a throughput above 1,000 transactions per second.

“Ethereum has the strongest ecosystem network effects, leading all others in market capitalization, developer activity, and number of applications,” the report noted. “Solana trails Ethereum in tokenized assets on-chain today, but it provides faster and lower-cost transactions. We believe these features enable broader retail accessibility and distribution and position Solana well for specific use cases like onchain consumer stock trading.”

Meanwhile, Chainlink, in Grayscale’s view, stands out as a top “picks and shovels” opportunity in the tokenization theme thanks to the critical middleware infrastructure it supplies at every stage of a tokenized asset’s lifecycle. The report also flagged Avalanche and BNB Chain as additional beneficiaries.