DeFi market forecast

A new market forecast says decentralized finance could reach $770.56 billion by 2031, with tokenized real-world-asset platforms projected as the fastest-growing slice. (mordorintelligence.com) Mordor Intelligence said the broader decentralized-finance market would grow from $238.54 billion in 2026 to $770.56 billion in 2031, a 26.43% compound annual growth rate. In the same report, tokenized real-world-asset platforms were singled out for a faster 39.72% growth rate through 2031. (mordorintelligence.com) Decentralized finance is software that lets users borrow, lend, trade, or earn yield on blockchains without a bank sitting in the middle. Tokenization is the step that turns a bond, loan, fund share, or piece of real estate into a digital token that can move on those networks. (weforum.org) The pitch is speed and reach. The World Economic Forum said tokenization can create a shared record of ownership, enable programmability, support fractional ownership, and make assets easier to move across systems. (weforum.org) That thesis is no longer only theoretical. DefiLlama’s dashboard showed total value locked in decentralized-finance protocols at about $91.0 billion on April 19, 2026, while RWA.xyz tracks a separate market for tokenized real-world assets used by issuers, investors, and service providers. (defillama.com) (rwa.xyz) The real-world-asset segment is still much smaller than the headline 2031 forecast, but it has been growing quickly. RWA.xyz says it covers tokenized assets across the ecosystem, and recent market reporting citing RWA.xyz data put onchain real-world assets above $25 billion in March 2026, excluding stablecoins. (rwa.xyz) (coindesk.com) Big institutions are part of that shift. Recent market coverage and industry data have pointed to products tied to Treasury bills, private credit, and tokenized funds from firms including BlackRock and Franklin Templeton as major drivers of real-world-asset growth. (coindesk.com) (app.rwa.xyz) Regulation is also moving closer to the market. On January 28, 2026, staff from three U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission divisions issued a statement on tokenized securities, and on March 17, 2026, the SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission published a joint interpretation on how federal securities laws apply to certain crypto assets and transactions. (sec.gov 1) (sec.gov 2) Regulators and standard setters have also warned that tokenization does not erase old market frictions. The Bank for International Settlements said tokenization could reshape payments and securities markets, but said design, oversight, and settlement structure still matter for financial stability. (bis.org) The forecast, then, is a bet on infrastructure as much as on crypto prices. If more bonds, credit products, and fund shares move onchain under clearer rules, the market Mordor describes gets easier to imagine; if not, the $770.56 billion figure stays a projection. (mordorintelligence.com) (sec.gov)