{
  "id": 11721822,
  "title": "2021–2026 : The Web 3 Ownership Evolution",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/03/2021-2026-the-web-3-ownership-evolution",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-10-03T15:26:16.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "HackerNoon",
    "slug": "hackernoon",
    "url": "https://hackernoon.com/2021-2026-the-web-3-ownership-evolution?source=rss"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "In 2021, the Web 3 ownership landscape underwent a significant transformation, largely due to the advent of blockchain technology. According to DeFi Llama, the real-world asset (RWA) market on DeFi Llama was valued at just over $349.25 million in the first two days post-launch, with precious metals and carbon credits as the initial assets represented as tokenized claims. This marked the beginning of a new era in asset ownership, where physical commodities and environmental assets could be represented on the blockchain despite their inherent limitations.\n\nAs the year progressed, blockchain technology began to optimize traditional assets for on-chain financial infrastructure. In 2022, the RWA market expanded to over $800 million, with private credit on-chain becoming a reality. Protocols like Maple and Goldfinch aimed to bring credit markets onto the blockchain, while Centrifuge focused on loaning solutions. However, the introduction of tokenized credit presented new challenges, as it required the representation of a claim based on someone's ability to repay in the future, inherently introducing risks and legal agreements into the equation.\n\nBy 2023, crypto-native yields began to falter, prompting the emergence of tokenized treasuries. These products offered competitive yields for users, with tokenized US Treasury products experiencing a 752% increase from January to the year's end. During this stage, infrastructure became paramount, and several products emerged with distinct approaches. Matrixdock's STBT utilized a rebasing structure, while Backed's blB01 employed a non-rebasing structure. These innovative financial products marked a significant leap towards becoming financial infrastructure, rather than mere on-chain representations of assets.\n\nIn 2024, institutions started to validate these infrastructures, with P2P transfers of BENJI between eligible shareholders becoming increasingly common. BlackRock's BUIDL launched alongside Securitize, showcasing the potential for traditional finance institutions to leverage blockchain infrastructure for product distribution, settlement, and management. By the end of 2024, the RWA market had reached $3 billion, marking a significant milestone in the evolution of Web 3 ownership.\n\nIn 2025, the tokenized market expanded dramatically, with products spanning bonds, precious metals, private credit, crypto digital assets, and private equity. The TaMcap surpassed $16 billion, more than five times the value from 2024. Tokenized assets became more than just on-chain representations; they transformed into collateral, liquidity, and capital sources for yield generation, signaling a new era in the Web 3 ownership landscape.\n\nHowever, this growth also revealed the limitations of tokenization. In real estate, for example, a tokenized asset could function even when the underlying physical property experienced operational issues. Moreover, the trading of tokens did not guarantee proper maintenance or management of the physical asset, as property management remains a distinct and non-tokenizable function. By 2026, the RWA market had grown to over $39 billion. Despite the growth, it was evident that a token being on-chain did not automatically make it DeFi native. The DeFi Llama RWA dashboard showed that roughly $4 billion in active TVL was recorded in DeFi, significantly lower than the $39 billion in on-chain RWA. As the integration of these assets in the Web 3 ecosystem continued, it became clear that the relationship between tokenization, DeFi, and traditional asset ownership remained complex and multifaceted.",
  "summary": "Tokenized RWAs top $34B onchain, but only a small share is active in DeFi. See how tokenization evolved from gold to Treasuries and where ownership breaks.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}