CZ’s RWA Reassessment: From Skepticism to On-Chain Market Advocacy

Changpeng Zhao’s change of view appears pragmatic rather than ideological. In early 2025, the question was whether putting familiar financial assets on a blockchain created enough new utility to justify the added complexity. By the YZi Labs EASY Residency Demo Day in Bhutan, the growth of tokenized equities—and especially demand from users outside the United States seeking access to U.S. stocks—gave him a clearer answer: in some markets, the product solves a real distribution and settlement problem.

That does not amount to a claim that tokenization will replace exchanges, brokers or custodians. It is a narrower argument that blockchain rails can make certain financial products easier to access, transfer and integrate with software.

What changed in CZ’s view?

The strongest evidence behind the reassessment was product usage. Binance launched bStocks on June 11, 2026, and reported that its market capitalization crossed $500 million on July 29—less than seven weeks later. Binance also reported $7.4 billion in July on-chain volume, representing 85% of tokenized-equity decentralized-exchange volume for the month, and $8.7 billion in cumulative volume by July 29. 4

Separate reporting based on Token Terminal data said bStocks had surpassed $500 million in assets under management and 522,000 holders by mid-August. 6 Those figures do not prove that tokenized markets are broadly mature, but they do demonstrate the kind of user traction that skepticism about “tokenization for its own sake” would require.

The practical use case is particularly clear for eligible non-U.S. users seeking exposure to U.S. equities. In that context, tokenization is less about making a stock fundamentally different and more about changing how it is distributed, transferred and connected to digital financial applications.

The advantages CZ highlighted

Tokenized assets can potentially improve several parts of the traditional market experience:

• Longer operating hours: Blockchain markets can support transfers and trading outside the limited sessions of conventional exchanges.
• Faster settlement: On-chain settlement can reduce some of the delays and reconciliation steps associated with traditional financial infrastructure.
• Smaller units: Digital representations can support fractional exposure, lowering the minimum amount needed to access some assets.
• Global distribution: A token can be delivered through a digital network, although actual availability still depends on securities law, identity checks and local restrictions.
• Programmability: Tokens can be used as collateral or integrated into decentralized-finance applications, subject to the legal and technical structure of the product.

These are potential infrastructure advantages, not automatic investor benefits. The International Organization of Securities Commissions has noted possible gains from atomic settlement, faster distribution of dividends and interest, and reduced search frictions, while also highlighting continuing concerns around accessibility and liquidity. 56

How bStocks works in the evidence provided

The supplied reporting describes bStocks as a custodial product representing shares held with a regulated custodian, rather than merely a synthetic bet on a stock’s price. That distinction matters. The SEC’s January 2026 statement separates custodial tokenized securities from synthetic models and explains that, in an issuer or agent model, the blockchain can function as the record of security ownership. 18

A token’s label alone, however, does not establish what an investor legally owns. The important questions include whether the underlying shares are held and segregated as promised, whether holders have enforceable rights, and how dividends, voting, splits, redemptions and corporate actions are handled.

How large was the RWA market by late August 2026?

The answer depends on the data source and its definitions. A report using RWA.xyz data put distributed real-world assets at approximately $38.35 billion on August 28, excluding stablecoins. 41 A separate Dune-based estimate put non-stablecoin RWAs at about $31.5 billion in August. 37 These totals should not be combined: they use different aggregation methods and inclusion rules.

Tokenized equities were among the fastest-growing segments. RWA.xyz-linked reporting showed about $2.54 billion in distributed tokenized stocks and more than $29.5 billion in 30-day transfer volume, an increase of over 415%. 36 The high transfer figure should not be read as equivalent to market capitalization or proof of deep, resilient liquidity.

RWA.xyz’s network data listed the largest non-stablecoin distributed values on Ethereum at about $17.47 billion, BNB Chain at about $5.79 billion, and Solana at about $4.04 billion as of August 26. 46 A separate August 20 snapshot put total stablecoin value at approximately $298.04 billion, but that figure is reported separately from the non-stablecoin RWA total. 47

The provided sources do not establish a single reliable August 28 aggregate for tokenized U.S. Treasury funds. They do show that the category was substantial: RWA.xyz’s Treasury dashboard listed Circle’s platform at about $2.9 billion and Ondo at about $2.7 billion on August 27, alongside other issuers and products. 45 Nor do the sources support a definitive count of every stock and ETF available through Ondo, so that figure should not be stated as settled fact.

The limits behind the growth

Regulation still follows the security

Tokenization does not create a regulatory loophole. The SEC’s January 28 statement says that moving the master securityholder record onto a crypto network changes the recordkeeping technology, not the legal nature of the security. 18 Registration, disclosure, custody, transfer-agent, trading-venue, know-your-customer, anti-money-laundering and investor-protection obligations can still apply.

Custody and legal title remain central

The market must establish who holds the underlying asset, who can mint and redeem the token, and what happens if an issuer, custodian or service provider fails. A fast blockchain transfer is not enough if the holder’s legal claim to the underlying security is unclear.

Volume is not the same as liquidity

Tokenized markets can have impressive transfer statistics while still relying on a small number of venues, market makers or liquidity pools. Fragmentation across chains, oracle failures, smart-contract vulnerabilities and price divergence from the underlying market remain material risks.

“Global” access is conditional

Non-U.S. demand may be a powerful use case, but cross-border distribution also creates the hardest compliance questions. Eligibility rules, geofencing, tax treatment, securities restrictions and local exchange controls can limit who may buy, hold or transfer a token.

What SEC developments could clarify next?

In December 2025, SEC Trading and Markets staff addressed how customer-protection possession requirements apply to fully paid and excess-margin digital-asset securities, an issue relevant to broker-dealer custody. 19 In January 2026, SEC staff from Corporation Finance, Investment Management and Trading and Markets issued a joint statement explaining the federal-securities-law treatment of tokenized securities. 18

The remaining need is operational clarity: how broker-dealers, transfer agents, custodians, alternative trading systems and other market venues can support compliant on-chain issuance and secondary trading. The SEC’s crypto-policy materials describe continuing work on the regulatory treatment and infrastructure for compliant on-chain markets. 17

Why CZ grouped RWAs with perpetual DEXs and AI agents

CZ’s broader framing treated RWAs, perpetual decentralized exchanges and AI agents as different routes to new crypto activity. RWAs bring financial-market access and collateral on-chain; perpetual DEXs target decentralized derivatives liquidity; AI agents could become autonomous users of blockchain-based services.

That comparison helps explain why he could advocate tokenization without calling it crypto’s single dominant trend. The category has shown meaningful adoption, particularly in tokenized equities, but its long-term success still depends on enforceable ownership, compliant distribution, reliable custody, durable liquidity and useful applications beyond simply reproducing an existing asset on a new ledger.