Cross-Chain RWA Tokenization: Blockchain Interoperability Solutions 2026

A major flaw in the $23.6 billion tokenized asset industry is that the majority has been implemented on one blockchain, namely Ethereum, with 65% of RWA (real-world assets) implementations, failing to achieve any true level of decentralised implementation through any chain. Such a high concentration of the execution of the RWA tokenization process on one network indicates that cross-chain interoperability is not what RWA tokenization has initially offered.

However, the gap between the two is closing slowly, but not at the pace required for institutions to begin issuing public purchase orders through cheque submissions.

Why Single-Chain Tokenization Hits a Wall

In a liquid marketplace, it does not make sense to issue a token on a single blockchain. You issue tokens to the blockchain you expect to have the most investor demand, meaning you are going to issue tokens on the blockchain with the best liquidity.

In 2021, Ethereum was the most commonly used blockchain for institutionally recognized blockchain projects, had the best DeFi ecosystem in existence, and there were more developers creating dApps than any other blockchain at that time. Oracle was the best choice for issuing your token in 2021 because it was easy to issue tokens on Ethereum as the only blockchain you needed to choose to issue your token on because that was the case in 2021.

In 2022, Ethereum still had the most institutional recognition; however, due mainly to the lack of liquidity on Ethereum and the developable ability to transfer tokens to another network, the validity of a single network model was substantially less than in 2021.

Multiple blockchains and tokens are now required to develop a liquid marketplace (i.e., to create a liquid marketplace it is necessary to develop a robust network of multiple tokens that use multiple blockchains).

However, currently, we have $10.5 billion in total tokenized funds, $6.5 billion in gold and commodities assets, and $1 billion+ in total tokenized stock presently only being able to access the asset pool one way with a single-chain paradigm, which is precisely what everyone that is paying attention has anticipated would happen.

Because liquidity across networks is fragmented, if you have a tokenized asset created on the Ethereum blockchain, you cannot use it as collateral on Solana unless you get a bridge; similar to if you created a bond on a private or permissioned institutional blockchain, you cannot settle against a DeFi protocol on an open public blockchain without specific middleware, therefore, you cannot access the same asset pool from separate networks.

As a result, secondary market liquidity for tokenized assets is very thin, due to the fact that a buyer can only congregate on the blockchain in which the issuer chose to issue their token, rather than where the liquidity naturally wants to be.

Accordingly, through tokenization, you have improved automation and transparency, but you haven't achieved the capital efficiency that was expected; your gap is with cross-chain interoperability.

What the Infrastructure Actually Looks Like

Three different strategies are competing with each other for dominance. The cutting-edge initiatives utilize various combinations of all three strategies and there is nothing about these strategies that mean they cannot fit together.

The nearest thing to an institutional standard at the moment is Chainlink's Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol, also known as CCIP. To handle off-chain data, over 80% of tokenised RWA systems use Chainlink oracles for their processing. CCIP also extends that reach by facilitating communication and cross-chain token transfer within one interoperable framework. As an example, CCIP enabled cross-chain treasury settlements in June 2025 between JPMorgan's Kinexys network and Ondo Chain's testnet by providing a mechanism for establishing delivery vs payment transactions between a public blockchain and a private regulated blockchain. The financial services sector needs an architecture that provides the linkage between open DeFi technology and regulated private ledgers. CCIP is working toward that goal. Swift is working with DTCC on multi-chain settlements of RWAs using a similar methodology to CCIP.

LayerZero provides a solution to the same problem, however it uses a different approach to do so. LayerZero's omnichain messaging protocol allows for smart contracts on multiple blockchains to communicate with one another, without an intermediary. As a result, an asset created on one blockchain can be used as a reference, as collateral, or transferred to another chain without physically migrating the asset to another for use in RWAs. The original ownership of the asset does not change; the economic rights of the asset move. Regulators are generally more concerned with where the authoritative record of ownership is located than where the asset is traded; therefore, this difference will impact a company's ability to comply with regulations.

Plume Network has created a solution called SkyLink that specifically addresses this issue. SkyLink allows for the simultaneous interaction of tokenized assets such as treasury bonds and real estate shares across Ethereum, Solana and Polygon. As a result, investors can use DeFi protocols on one blockchain to generate yield by holding tokenized assets on another blockchain. Currently,over 15% of the total market for tokenized asset cross-chain RWAs are cross-chain installations of SkyLink.

The Compliance Layer Nobody Wants to Skip

Interoperability is just a risk, and not a product, if compliance integration is not performed.

Just because tokenizing assets are moved across chains, does not mean the regulatory compliance obligations from tokenizing that asset go away once the tokenized asset has been moved across the bridge. For example, if KYC has been completed for a tokenized asset on the Ethereum chain, you cannot assume that KYC is also valid for the same tokenized asset on the Avalanche chain. Also, a smart contract from one blockchain does not necessarily have transfer restrictions to an asset present on another blockchain. Therefore, if the interoperability layer does not include verified identification and restriction data along with the tokenized asset, there is the potential for compliance gaps when transferring a tokenized asset across chains.

Quant Network's Overledger addresses this issue. For example, a government bond that is tokenized on a private permissioned ledger can be made available to eligible investors/institutions on a public chain while enforcing KYC compliance in both environments at the point of origin. When the asset is transferred, all compliance rules will be present for that asset, but the rules may not have been provided or enforced at the point of origin of the asset.

Polymesh is a Layer 1 blockchain that was created specifically for regulated securities (or tokenized real world assets). Polymesh manages corporate actions, transfer restrictions, and identity verification at the protocol level, not the application level. Therefore, before an asset is transferred from the Polymesh blockchain to another blockchain, that asset must have explicit compliance approval. This is not a limitation, this is the whole point.

Where the Market Is Going

Standard Chartered's CEO asserted that almost every transaction will be tokenised in the future. The current $23.6 billion in crypto is in contrast to a projected $2 trillion by 2028 equating to 85 times larger in the next two years. The cross-chain infrastructure currently existing has been built and is not a test of technology. It is a means of expanding on that technological foundation or being an impediment to such expansion.

The chains with the best technology will not be the ones winning but instead, those interoperating with all others and following the regulatory requirements necessary for institutionally based, institutional investments.