The tokenized US Treasury market has surged by over $1 billion since the beginning of 2026, despite macroeconomic uncertainty and concerns over the US government’s growing national debt.
Tokenized US Treasurys are government debt instruments that are a form of real-world assets (RWAs) represented onchain by a token.
The market capitalization of tokenized Treasurys climbed to more than $10.8 billion at the time of writing from $8.9 billion on Jan. 1, according to data from RWA.xyz.
The tokenized US Treasury market has surged 50x since 2024, according to data from Token Terminal, aided by the March 2024 debut of asset manager BlackRock’s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), which now has a market cap of more than $1.2 billion.
Tokenized US Treasurys continued to surge despite a broad crypto market downturn that began in October 2025, rising US government debt levels and investor uncertainty about the macroeconomic outlook in 2026.
Related: Tokenized RWAs climb 13.5% despite $1T crypto market drawdown
The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation to launch US Treasury tokenization service
The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC), which provides clearing and settlement services for global financial markets, announced plans in December 2025 to launch an asset tokenization service, beginning with US Treasurys.
DTCC will eventually expand the service to include a “broad spectrum” of assets, according CEO Frank La Salla.
“Following the tokenization of US Treasurys on the Canton network, DTCC anticipates that exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and equities will come shortly thereafter,” La Salla said.
The DTCC is the largest clearinghouse in the world and settled $3.7 quadrillion in transaction volume in 2024, according to the company.
US Treasurys are considered the backbone of global and corporate finance due to the deep liquidity of the US Treasury market.
Corporations and institutional investors use short-term Treasurys, with a duration of one-year or less, as a proxy for physical cash.
The surge in tokenized US Treasurys and other US government debt could bring an influx of revenue to the blockchain networks where tokenized assets are minted, supporters of the technology say.
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