RWAs hit $24b as private credit leads 2025 crypto growth, report shows

A report by RedStone shows that private credit is the main driver of growth in the real-world asset market.

Tokenized real-world assets are one of the biggest trends in crypto this year. On Thursday, RedStone published a report on the state of on-chain finance in the first half of 2025. The report notes that RWAs have become one of the fastest-growing categories.

RWAs reached an estimated value of more than $24 billion in June 2025, up from $5 to $10 billion in 2022. This growth was second only to stablecoins, which have seen even stronger performance during the same period.

According to Marcin Kaźmierczak, Co-founder of RedStone, the primary driver behind this RWA growth is private credit. This refers to loans made outside the traditional banking system, often issued directly to private companies.

How RWAs change private credit

Private credit loans were traditionally very illiquid, often subject to multi-year lockups. This meant lenders had to wait a long time to realize a profit. Still, their high yields, typically 8% to 12%, made them worthwhile.

With RWAs, traders can sell these loans, giving them significantly more flexibility. In addition, these assets can be packaged into institutional-grade private credit funds, such as Apollo’s ACRED, making private credit more accessible to a broader range of investors.

RWAs also make these assets programmable and composable. Institutions can now embed specific strategies, including automatic interest distribution or triggered liquidations. At the same time, tokenized assets can be integrated across various protocols, including as collateral.

According to RedStone, this indicates that RWAs have matured for real-world applications—beyond early experiments with blockchain technology. Non-crypto-native institutions are now leveraging the technology to enhance their operations.