RWA Inc’s Kevin Yunai: Liquidity, Not Just Tokenization, Unlocks $320 Billion Market
RWA Inc’s Kevin Yunai says the $320 billion real world asset market will not mean much for crypto investors until platforms solve liquidity. My take: that is the part people keep skipping because “tokenization” sounds cleaner in a headline. Putting an asset on chain is the easy part. The harder part is getting it to trade properly, settle cleanly, and work inside DeFi without becoming another dead market nobody wants to touch.
The RWA sector has already proved that traditional assets can be tokenized. That question is basically closed. Yunai, founder and CEO of RWA Inc, says the conversation has shifted from “can we tokenize?” to “can we create better financial markets?” His version is sharper: “Simple tokenization is putting an asset representation onchain. Productive onchain finance is when that asset becomes usable: tradable, financeable, pledgeable, composable, transparent, and connected to real economic yield.” Put simply, the token is only the wrapper. A tokenized Treasury bill, private credit note, or real estate fund still needs buyers, sellers, pricing, collateral use, redemption terms, and a working path back to the underlying asset.
Why does this matter? Because plenty of tokenized products make noise at launch and then barely trade. We have all seen that movie. Yunai says the industry has “over-indexed on issuance platforms while underbuilding the infrastructure needed to support active, trusted markets.” Most guides say issuance is the breakthrough. That is only half right. Anyone can launch a new RWA token, but if there are no serious market makers, no dependable pricing, and no venue where size can move, it will not bring much liquidity or volume into DeFi. It is like listing a token on a DEX with no liquidity providers. Live, but not useful.
Yunai says the missing pieces are not minor: regulated secondary markets, reliable market makers, standard disclosures, trusted custody, verified pricing, interoperable compliance, identity layers, institutional settlement, and clear redemption mechanics. That is not a feature backlog. It is the market. Without those pieces, tokenized RWAs can turn into “static digital certificates rather than active financial instruments.” Confidence breaks fast. A tokenized bond with vague redemption terms or weak pricing will not pull in much institutional money, and it will not work well as collateral in a DeFi lending market. I’ll be honest: I would not want to borrow against something nobody can price with confidence.
Yunai also says platforms have to respect both blockchain speed and legal reality. “Blockchain gives speed, transparency, automation, and global reach. Real-world assets require legal enforceability, ownership structures, custody, KYC, reporting, valuation, and redemption processes.” The second sentence is where the work sits. Institutions need to know who owns the asset, what happens in a dispute, who holds custody, which regulator has authority, and how redemption works when markets are stressed. If the legal structure is weak, the token is a non-starter. Counter to the usual crypto instinct, more speed does not fix a bad ownership claim. Regulators matter here too. Without clearer rules, agencies like the SEC and overseas watchdogs could slow RWA growth, much as scrutiny has weighed on stablecoins and staking services.
One of Yunai’s more useful points is that “access comes before liquidity.” Tokenization is often pitched as a way to make hard-to-trade assets liquid. Maybe it can, eventually. But the first benefit is usually access: lower minimums and wider distribution. Fewer geographic barriers too. Liquidity comes later, if the market has credible access, compliant distribution, verified information, and repeat buyers. Is that overkill? For a serious RWA market, no. Traders should pay attention to that order. A new RWA token can launch with plenty of noise and still have shallow liquidity by the second week, which means wide spreads, ugly price moves, and real risk for anyone chasing a listing without checking the market structure behind it.
Yunai thinks the strongest position in the RWA stack will belong to platforms that control trust, distribution, and liquidity. “The most value will go to the platforms that control trust, distribution, and liquidity,” he says. I would frame that as a picks-and-shovels argument, but with sharper teeth. Investors may need to look beyond the asset and toward infrastructure providers, compliance tools, custodians, settlement systems, pricing services, and market makers. Yes, this sounds less exciting than buying the newest token. That is partly the point. The asset itself may not be the whole trade. The platform that makes the asset usable may capture more value. If those systems work, they could bring more capital into DeFi and support the chains or protocols where RWA products actually trade.
What this means
Yunai’s view suggests the RWA market is getting past the first wave of tokenization hype. Good. The market does not need more assets wrapped in tokens and left on a shelf. To get anywhere near a $320 billion opportunity, RWAs need liquid markets, clear rules, reliable custody, stress-tested redemption, and pricing people can trust. That would be a real adoption signal for crypto, not because “real world assets” sounds impressive, but because working RWA markets would connect crypto rails to actual capital markets. My read: protocols that handle compliance, settlement, and liquidity well could benefit first, especially DeFi platforms that can plug these assets in without making the user experience miserable.
Investors should watch regulation around tokenized securities and real estate, along with the arrival of custodians and market makers that institutions already trust. TVL in RWA-focused DeFi protocols is worth tracking, but it is not enough by itself. Look for four harder signals: regulated secondary markets, tighter spreads, repeat institutional participation, and redemption processes that still work under stress. The next big trigger could be a clear rulebook from a major jurisdiction or a large financial institution launching a compliant RWA product that actually trades. That would matter more than another flashy token announcement.