New research models how crosschain price gaps and capital friction are eroding efficiency as tokenized markets scale across blockchains.
Fragmentation across blockchain networks is already imposing a measurable economic cost on the tokenized asset market, with inefficiencies translating into up to $1.3 billion in annual value drag.
In a report sent to Cointelegraph, real-world asset (RWA) data provider RWA.io argued that while blockchains accelerated innovation, they also created walls that trap liquidity and prevent capital from moving freely across networks.
As a result, tokenized RWAs have increasingly behaved like disconnected markets rather than a single, unified financial system. The research found that identical or economically equivalent assets routinely trade at different prices across chains, while moving capital between networks remained costly and complex.
