Brickken survey: RWA issuers focus on fundraising over liquidity as regulations slow tokenization
A fourth-quarter 2025 Brickken survey of real-world-asset (RWA) issuers finds most firms use tokenization primarily for capital formation and fundraising efficiency rather than to enable secondary-market liquidity. Key findings: 53.8% of respondents cite capital formation as their main motive, 15.4% cite liquidity, 38.4% say liquidity is not required, and 46.2% expect secondary liquidity within six to 12 months. Tokenization is already live for 69.2% of respondents, 23.1% are in progress and 7.7% are planning. Regulatory friction is the dominant impediment: 84.6% of issuers report some regulatory drag, with 53.8% saying regulation slowed operations. Technology ranked lower (13%). The asset mix is shifting beyond real estate to equities (28.6%), IP and entertainment (17.9%), plus sectors such as fintech, private credit and renewable energy. Industry voices — including Brickken CMO Jordi Esturi, Ondo’s Ian de Bode, Legal Node partner Alvaro Garrido, and DZ PRIVATBANK’s Patrick Hennes — emphasize that issuance infrastructure, compliance and high-quality, structured assets are foundational to meaningful secondary markets. The survey comes amid major exchanges (CME, NYSE, Nasdaq) planning expanded 24/7 tokenized trading, but issuers remain in a validation phase prioritizing regulatory structure, investor protection and issuance processes. For traders: expect gradual growth in tokenized asset supply and trading volume as regulatory frameworks and issuance standards mature; near-term liquidity may remain limited for many tokenized RWAs.
Neutral
The news is market-neutral overall. It signals structural progress — high share of issuers live (69.2%), diversification of tokenized asset types (equities, IP, entertainment) and major exchanges planning 24/7 tokenized trading — which are bullish long-term drivers for tokenized asset markets and crypto infrastructure. However, the dominant theme is regulatory friction: 84.6% of issuers report regulatory drag and many remain in a validation phase prioritizing compliance over liquidity. That suggests limited near-term expansion of tradable supply and constrained secondary liquidity, which tempers immediate upside for trading activity. Historical parallels: previous infrastructure rollouts (e.g., tokenized funds, security token offerings) produced long lead times where issuance and compliance matured before large-scale secondary trading emerged. For traders: expect muted short-term liquidity and episodic volatility around regulatory or exchange announcements, but gradual bullish tailwinds over months-to-years as issuance standards, custody and exchange integration improve. Short-term trading strategies should favour assets and venues with clear regulatory status and deep price discovery (e.g., tokenized equities/ETFs) and avoid illiquid RWA tokens until secondary markets develop. Longer-term, improved issuance infrastructure and 24/7 trading by major exchanges could increase market depth and attract institutional flows, a bullish structural development.