Stellar's tokenized real-world asset (RWA) market has grown roughly 360% this year and now sits close to $4 billion, up from just $868.8 million at the end of last year. According to a Dune Analytics dashboard maintained by the Stellar Development Foundation, the network's RWA market cap stood at $3.996 billion as of August 29.
The growth comes alongside deeper interest from institutional players, with DTCC and MoneyGram both connecting to the network. Still, the network's native XLM token hasn't caught that momentum and trades well below where it started the year.
Who Makes Up Stellar's RWA Market
Assets on Stellar span US Treasurys, private and public credit, non-US government debt and other tokenized asset classes. The market remains highly concentrated: a single issuer accounts for close to half of the entire market cap.
Spiko leads the pack with $1.55 billion as of August 27. It's followed by Realiz at $559 million, Tradable at $548 million, Franklin Templeton at $546 million and Ondo at $535 million. Together, these five names control most of the network's tokenized assets.
Non-US Government Debt and DTCC's Plans
Non-US government debt has become a separate growth track. Citing RWA.xyz data, the Stellar Development Foundation put that segment at roughly $490 million as of August 20, including tokenized Mexican CETES and Brazilian government bonds issued through the Etherfuse platform.
An even bigger boost could come from the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation. In May, DTCC announced plans to connect its tokenization service to Stellar, with DTC-tokenized assets expected to go live on the network in the first half of 2027. That integration could eventually cover tokenized US Treasurys, major index ETFs and Russell 1000 stocks.
Stellar's Stablecoins: MGUSD Against USDT and USDC
In June, MoneyGram launched its own dollar stablecoin, MGUSD, on Stellar, letting users hold dollar-denominated balances and move funds through the company's global payments network. Combined with other issuers, reserve-verified stablecoins on Stellar now total around $438 million.
That's still far smaller than USDT and USDC, which dominate crypto settlement volumes. But for a network that until recently was known mainly for cross-border transfers, a payments giant like MoneyGram showing up is a meaningful vote of confidence.
Why XLM Hasn't Kept Pace With the Network
Despite the RWA segment's rapid growth, XLM itself is down about 11% year to date and trades near $0.18, according to CoinGecko data. That's a familiar gap for infrastructure blockchains: capital and activity can climb while the token, used mostly for fees and validation, sees no direct boost in demand.
A similar pattern has shown up before on other networks with a heavy share of institutional RWA activity, where most of the upside flows to the issuers of the tokenized assets rather than holders of the underlying chain's token.
Risks and Scenarios for Further Growth
July and August trends suggest Stellar's RWA segment will keep expanding, though the pace depends on a few factors:
- Growth driver: Tradable said back in July it plans to bring private credit on Stellar up to $1 billion, building on the $1.7 billion it has already tokenized across nearly 30 positions.
- Regulatory factor: the DTCC integration set for 2027 would open the door to far larger sums, but the timeline hinges on US regulatory approvals.
- Concentration among five issuers remains a risk. Trouble at one major player, such as Spiko, could shake up the wider market figures.
- XLM's price is unlikely to start tracking RWA growth anytime soon unless demand for the token itself shifts structurally.
What the RWA Surge Means for Tokenization
Stellar's tokenized assets climbing from $868.8 million to nearly $4 billion in a year stands as one of the clearest signs that institutional finance is steadily moving onto blockchain rails. DTCC and MoneyGram's involvement shows the network is being treated as settlement infrastructure for traditional assets, not just a payments rail. Until that shift translates into demand for XLM itself, though, the gap between the network's growth and its market valuation will likely persist.
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