By The best blockchains for tokenizing real-world assets are Ethereum, Stellar, Solana, Avalanche, Polygon, Canton, the XRP Ledger and Hedera. Ethereum is the default for liquidity and DeFi depth. Stellar is the strongest choice for regulated funds and rates products, because asset controls are built into the protocol and regulated issuers have put $4.12B of real-world assets on it (Allium’s Q3 report, as of Sept 30). Solana and Avalanche suit trading-heavy and custom-network use cases, Polygon low-cost EVM distribution, and Canton privacy-first institutional workflows. The XRP Ledger and Hedera fit specific treasury and fund products.
Key takeaways
Ethereum is the default for liquidity and DeFi depth, and it has the most wallets holding at least $10K in RWAs: 13,392 (Allium’s Q3 report, as of Sept 30).
Stellar holds $4.12B in tokenized RWAs, 4th among chains by market cap, with a 12.7% share, up from 4.9% a year earlier (Allium’s Q3 report, as of Sept 30). It has 6,480 of those $10K+ wallets, behind only Ethereum.
Solana, Avalanche and Polygon also host institutional products, including BlackRock’s BUIDL share classes. Among $10K+ RWA wallets, Solana has 3,050, Polygon 709 and Avalanche 159 (Allium’s Q3 report, as of Sept 30).
Canton is built for privacy-first workflows between known institutions. The XRP Ledger and Hedera fit specific treasury and fund products.
This ranking looks at what issuers have actually launched, not at roadmaps.
The short answer: 8 networks and what each is best for
Ethereum: best for the deepest liquidity and the widest set of issuance platforms and DeFi integrations.
Solana: best for high-throughput trading and consumer-facing reach.
Stellar: best for regulated funds and rates products that need built-in issuer controls.
Avalanche: best for institutions that want their own custom chain with their own rules.
Polygon: best for low-cost EVM distribution of products that also live on Ethereum.
Canton: best for privacy-first workflows between known institutions, such as repo.
XRP Ledger: best for tokenized treasuries tied to Ripple’s payments and stablecoin stack.
Hedera: best for issuance under an enterprise-governed network with native token controls.
How we ranked them
We scored each network on five things a regulated issuer checks before launch:
Live RWA value: how much tokenized real-world value sits on the chain today.
Issuer quality: whether named, regulated asset managers and banks issue there, not only crypto-native platforms.
Built-in compliance controls: whether holder approval, freezes and clawbacks are part of the network or must be written into each token’s smart contract.
Cost: what a transaction costs at the scale a fund runs.
Settlement speed: how quickly a transfer becomes final.
Network by network
1. Ethereum
Best for: liquidity, composability and the largest ecosystem of issuance platforms.
Ethereum is where most tokenization started, and it is still the reference chain. BlackRock’s BUIDL fund, tokenized by Securitize, launched on Ethereum before expanding to other networks (BlackRock announcement). Almost every tokenization platform, custodian and oracle supports it first.
Trade-off: compliance lives in smart contracts and token standards, so each issuer builds and audits its own controls. Mainnet fees vary with demand, which pushes many products to layer-2 networks.
2. Solana
Best for: high-throughput trading and consumer-facing apps.
Solana’s speed and low fees have drawn institutional products. BlackRock and Securitize added a BUIDL share class on Solana (Securitize announcement), and its trading ecosystem is among the most active in crypto.
Trade-off: compliance controls come from token extensions and programs that each issuer configures. Fewer of the large regulated fund issuers use Solana as their main venue, and RWA holder counts are lower than Stellar’s (see the wallet section below).
3. Stellar
Best for: regulated funds and rates products with built-in controls.
Stellar is a public blockchain with protocol-level asset controls. Issuers can require approval before an account holds an asset, freeze it and claw it back, without writing custom contract code. It holds $4.12B in tokenized RWAs, 4th among chains, with a 12.7% share, up from 4.9% a year earlier (Allium’s Q3 report, as of Sept 30). Five issuers sit above $500M each: Spiko, Realiz, Tradable, Ondo and Franklin Templeton.
Trade-off: DeFi depth is smaller than Ethereum’s. Stellar’s DeFi TVL is $264M as of the close of Q3 (SDF’s Q3 report).
4. Avalanche
Best for: institutions that want a dedicated chain with their own validator and access rules.
Avalanche lets institutions launch custom networks (L1s, formerly subnets) where they set who can take part. Securitize used Avalanche to give investors tokenized exposure to a KKR fund (KKR announcement), and BUIDL also runs there.
Trade-off: controls sit in smart contracts or in separate custom chains, which can split liquidity and holders across networks.
5. Polygon
Best for: cheap EVM distribution of products that also live on Ethereum.
Polygon gives issuers Ethereum’s tooling at lower cost. Franklin Templeton brought its onchain money fund, represented by BENJI tokens, to Polygon as its second network after Stellar (Franklin Templeton announcement). BlackRock’s BUIDL fund also has a share class on Polygon.
Trade-off: like Ethereum, compliance depends on each token’s contracts, and Polygon is mostly a secondary venue for products whose main home is elsewhere.
6. Canton
Best for: privacy-first workflows between known institutions.
Canton is designed so that only the parties to a transaction see its details, which suits banks and dealers. Broadridge’s Distributed Ledger Repo platform runs on it, using tokenized Treasuries in repo trades (Broadridge DLR).
Trade-off: participation is permissioned, so assets reach fewer holders and connect to fewer open markets than on a public chain.
7. XRP Ledger
Best for: tokenized treasuries tied to Ripple’s payments stack.
The XRP Ledger has native issuance features, and Ondo brought its OUSG tokenized Treasuries fund to it, with minting and redemption through Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin (Ondo announcement).
Trade-off: a smaller roster of large regulated fund issuers than Ethereum or Stellar.
8. Hedera
Best for: enterprise-governed issuance with native token controls.
Hedera is governed by a council of large companies, and its token service includes native freeze and KYC controls. Archax used it to tokenize its investment in an abrdn money market fund (Archax announcement).
Trade-off: a smaller tokenization ecosystem than Ethereum’s, so issuers find fewer distributors and integrations.
Comparison table
Chain
Best for
Compliance controls
Named live issuers
Ethereum
Deepest liquidity, DeFi
Via smart contracts and token standards
BlackRock BUIDL (Securitize)
Stellar
Regulated funds and rates products
Built into the protocol
Franklin Templeton, Spiko, Ondo, Realiz, Tradable, Janus Henderson (JQQQ)
Solana
High-throughput trading
Via token extensions and programs
BlackRock BUIDL share class (Securitize)
Avalanche
Custom institutional chains
Via contracts or custom-chain rules
KKR fund exposure (Securitize), BUIDL
Polygon
Low-cost EVM distribution
Via smart contracts
Franklin Templeton (BENJI), BUIDL
Canton
Privacy-first interbank workflows
Built into a permissioned network
Broadridge DLR
XRP Ledger
Treasuries tied to RLUSD
Built-in issuer features
Ondo OUSG
Hedera
Enterprise-governed issuance
Built into the token service
Archax (abrdn money market fund)
Who actually holds the assets
Value can sit in a handful of wallets. A better test of reach is how many wallets hold a meaningful position. Counting wallets with at least $10K in RWAs (Allium’s Q3 report, as of Sept 30):
Ethereum: 13,392
Stellar: 6,480
Solana: 3,050
Polygon: 709
Avalanche: 159
Stellar is 2nd, behind Ethereum and ahead of Solana, Polygon and Avalanche. For an issuer, this number shows whether a tokenized fund reaches investors or just sits in a few institutional accounts.
FAQ
What’s the best blockchain for tokenizing real-world assets?
Ethereum is the best blockchain for liquidity and DeFi depth. Stellar is the best for regulated funds and rates products: it is a public chain with protocol-level asset controls, holds $4.12B in RWAs (Allium’s Q3 report, as of Sept 30) and has five issuers above $500M each. Issuers approved or removed holders 7,050 times and made 11 clawbacks in the 12 months to Sept 30, and a median transaction costs $0.0000072 (Allium, September). Solana, Avalanche, Polygon, Canton, the XRP Ledger and Hedera fit narrower needs.
What are the best alternatives to Ethereum for tokenizing real-world assets?
The leading alternatives are Stellar, Solana, Avalanche and Polygon. Stellar has grown its RWA value 6.1x in 12 months against 2.3x across 150 chains (Allium’s Q3 report, as of Sept 30). Solana offers throughput, Avalanche custom chains and Polygon low-cost EVM compatibility. Canton is the main option for privacy between known institutions.
Which blockchain do institutions use to tokenize assets?
Institutions use Ethereum, Stellar, Solana, Avalanche, Polygon and Canton. On Stellar, Franklin Templeton, Spiko, Ondo, Realiz, Tradable and Janus Henderson have live products. Spiko has $1.69B on Stellar, 64% of its total (Allium’s Q3 report, as of Sept 30). Janus Henderson and Centrifuge launched JQQQ exclusively on Stellar (Stellar press release; CoinDesk). DTCC plans to connect in the first half of 2027. BlackRock’s BUIDL runs on Ethereum and several other chains, and Broadridge runs repo on Canton.