While most RWA examples struggle to raise institutional capital, five tokenization platforms have cracked the code—securing nine-figure funding rounds from BlackRock, major VCs, and strategic corporate investors. The difference? They positioned themselves as infrastructure modernization plays, not crypto experiments.

In 2024, the RWA tokenization market reached $18.88 billion, driven by concrete institutional demand rather than speculative trading. These tokenization case studies reveal that projects successfully attracting institutional capital share specific characteristics: regulatory compliance infrastructure, measurable operational improvements, and partnerships with established financial institutions. They solved real problems for asset managers, credit originators, and institutional investors—then proved it with quantifiable results.

This analysis examines five RWA projects that raised over $100 million by studying their fundraising strategies, regulatory positioning, and institutional partnerships. Each project demonstrates different approaches to the same challenge: convincing traditional finance that blockchain infrastructure creates genuine operational value.

We selected these projects based on total institutional capital raised, regulatory compliance sophistication, measurable business metrics, and depth of institutional partnerships. Rather than theoretical potential, these represent proven models that attracted serious institutional money.

You'll see exactly how Securitize positioned itself to BlackRock, why Ondo's Treasury strategy attracted $500M in AUM, and how Propy convinced institutions to fund real estate tokenization at scale. These aren't just success stories—they're replicable playbooks for institutional fundraising in the RWA sector.

1. Securitize: Infrastructure-First RWA Platform

Securitize operates as a comprehensive tokenization infrastructure platform with full SEC regulatory registrations, including broker-dealer status (member SIPC), an alternative trading system, and operation as a top-10 transfer agent. The company successfully raised $47 million in Series B funding led by BlackRock in 2024, demonstrating the highest level of institutional validation in the RWA space.

What sets Securitize apart for institutional investors is its elimination of regulatory barriers that typically prevent asset managers from tokenizing securities. Rather than requiring institutions to build in-house compliance teams or navigate unclear regulatory frameworks, Securitize provides turnkey infrastructure that enables immediate tokenization within existing securities regulations. This positioning attracted capital from Hamilton Lane, ParaFi, Tradeweb, Aptos Labs, Circle, and Paxos, representing both traditional finance and crypto-native institutional investors.

The platform's institutional credibility is evidenced through concrete operational metrics: facilitating over $4 billion in digital real estate transactions while serving as the transfer agent for BlackRock's USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL)—BlackRock's first tokenized fund on a public blockchain. Securitize also operates as a licensed title company, demonstrating operational depth across multiple asset classes beyond securities issuance.

BlackRock's selection of Securitize as transfer agent for its tokenized Treasury fund represents the gold standard of institutional endorsement in traditional finance. This partnership validates Securitize's regulatory infrastructure and operational sophistication at the level required by the world's largest asset manager.

For emerging RWA projects, replicating Securitize's regulatory infrastructure requires significant capital investment and multi-year compliance buildout, making their approach most suitable for well-funded institutional platforms rather than early-stage tokenization experiments.

2. Ondo Finance: DeFi Meets Traditional Treasury Assets

Ondo Finance built a decentralized investment bank focused on connecting institutional stakeholders with DeFi infrastructure, accumulating over $100 million across multiple strategic funding rounds since 2022. The platform has become the leading provider of tokenized U.S. Treasuries for institutional investors, managing $500 million in assets under management by December 2024.

The project matters to institutional capital because it demonstrates sustained product-market fit in Treasury tokenization—the most conservative and regulated segment of RWA markets. Ondo's success validates that institutional investors will deploy significant capital into tokenized government securities when proper compliance infrastructure exists. The platform's acquisition of Oasis Pro's SEC-registered broker-dealer status shows how successful tokenization projects build regulatory legitimacy through strategic M&A rather than lengthy approval processes.

Key operational achievements include offering 4.5-5% yields on tokenized Treasury bills to qualified institutional investors, processing hundreds of millions in subscription and redemption volume, and maintaining institutional-grade custody through established financial infrastructure partners. The platform developed diversified product offerings including structured products with downside protection specifically designed for institutional risk management requirements.

Ondo's partnership with MakerDAO for Treasury-backed stablecoin collateral demonstrates real-world institutional adoption, where traditional government securities become productive assets within DeFi protocols. This integration creates new yield opportunities for Treasury holders while providing stable collateral for decentralized lending markets.

The multi-round fundraising approach—Series A in 2022 followed by expansion rounds—reflects how institutional RWA projects build momentum through demonstrated traction rather than speculative technology claims, attracting capital from Accel, Bain Capital, and other traditional venture firms with institutional network relationships.

3. Propy: Real Estate Tokenization at Scale

Propy is a licensed title company that raised $100 million in expansion financing by combining real estate tokenization with operational control of property transaction infrastructure. Rather than simply tokenizing real estate assets, Propy acquired title firms nationwide and modernized their operations through AI automation and blockchain deed recording.

This approach attracts institutional capital because it demonstrates revenue-generating operations within existing regulatory frameworks. Instead of disrupting real estate transactions, Propy improves them by owning critical infrastructure components. This positioning reduces perceived risk for institutional investors who can evaluate the company based on traditional title insurance business metrics enhanced by technology improvements.

Propy's institutional advantages include three core elements: First, it operates as a fully licensed title company with regulatory legitimacy in real estate transactions. Second, the company has processed over $4 billion in digital real estate transactions, demonstrating operational scale and market validation. Third, AI-powered automation reduces human work by 40 percent while blockchain deed recording eliminates fraud risks that cost the industry billions annually.

The $100 million expansion funding combines private credit instruments with blockchain-based DeFi loans powered by Morpho, showcasing integration between traditional and decentralized finance. Propy strengthened institutional credibility by adding Chris Campbell (former Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury) and Michael S. Piwowar (former SEC Commissioner) to its advisory board.

The specialized focus on real estate limits Propy's addressable market compared to general tokenization platforms, but this specialization enabled deep operational expertise that attracted growth capital from investors specifically evaluating blockchain applications in property markets.

4. Centrifuge: Credit Asset Tokenization Platform

Centrifuge operates as a specialized platform for tokenizing institutional credit assets, raising $15 million in Series A funding from leading investors including ParaFi Capital, Coinbase Ventures, and Circle. The platform focuses specifically on bringing real-world credit instruments—commercial loans, trade finance, and structured products—onto blockchain infrastructure for institutional asset managers.

The project matters because it demonstrates quantifiable operational improvements in credit markets that institutional investors can measure and validate. Centrifuge's partnership with BlockTower Capital and MakerDAO to tokenize a $220 million structured credit fund achieved a 97% reduction in securitization costs, reducing expenses from millions in traditional intermediary fees to under $60,000 in blockchain transaction costs. This represents concrete evidence that tokenization can create measurable value in institutional workflows.

Key features include automated securitization workflows that eliminate manual reconciliation processes, transparent on-chain reporting that provides real-time portfolio visibility, and integration with established DeFi protocols like MakerDAO for capital efficiency. The platform operates with institutional-grade compliance infrastructure and integrates with Coinbase Verification to streamline KYC processes for qualified investors.

Centrifuge's real-world implementation managing hundreds of millions in credit assets across multiple asset originators provides operational proof points that traditional asset managers can evaluate. The platform has announced plans to expand into Base layer-2 infrastructure with enhanced institutional onboarding through Coinbase integration.

Centrifuge requires asset originators to adapt their operational processes to blockchain-native workflows, which may present adoption friction for institutions with legacy systems.

5. Backed Finance: European Regulatory Framework for Traditional Securities Tokenization

Backed Finance is a Switzerland-based tokenization platform that issues blockchain-based versions of traditional securities, including individual stocks and ETF equivalents, operating under clear Swiss regulatory frameworks. The company raised $9.5 million in 2024 funding led by Gnosis, demonstrating institutional confidence in regulated tokenization infrastructure.

This approach matters for institutional asset managers because it provides a tested regulatory pathway for tokenizing traditional securities within an established European jurisdiction. Rather than navigating uncertain regulatory environments, institutions can leverage Backed's Swiss compliance infrastructure to offer tokenized exposure to conventional assets like Tesla (TSLA) and Coinbase (COIN) stock.

Backed's platform focuses on three core capabilities: regulatory compliance within Swiss financial frameworks, tokenization of liquid traditional securities, and institutional-grade custody integration. The platform has issued over $50 million worth of tokenized assets, demonstrating operational scale beyond proof-of-concept implementations. Their investor base combines crypto-native venture capital (Gnosis, Blockchain Founders Fund) with traditional finance-focused investors (Blue Bay Capital, Stake Capital Ventures), reflecting successful positioning across both ecosystems.

The real-world application centers on solving fragmentation in global financial markets by enabling 24/7 trading and programmable settlement of traditional securities. Institutional clients can offer tokenized stock exposure to international investors without complex cross-border custody arrangements or restricted trading hours.

The Swiss regulatory framework provides clarity but limits scalability to European markets, requiring additional regulatory work for broader institutional adoption across other jurisdictions.

Conclusion: RWA Examples 2026 and Beyond

These five tokenization case studies reveal a clear institutional playbook: regulatory infrastructure trumps innovation, operational metrics matter more than total addressable market, and specialization beats generalization. The winners didn't just tokenize assets—they became regulated financial services providers with measurable business results.

The pattern is unmistakable. Institutions deploy capital into projects that eliminate compliance burdens, demonstrate quantifiable cost reductions, and operate within established regulatory frameworks. Securitize's broker-dealer license, Ondo's Treasury AUM, and Propy's title company acquisition show how regulatory positioning creates competitive advantages that pure technology cannot replicate.

According to JPMorgan's analysis of blockchain integration, the infrastructure modernization trend extends far beyond individual projects—major financial institutions are building entire tokenization ecosystems. For RWA projects targeting institutional capital, the message is direct: build compliance infrastructure first, technology second. Tokenizing real-world assets? RZLT has helped RWA projects raise millions. Let's build your pitch.

By 2026, institutional tokenization will separate into two markets—regulated platforms that capture serious capital and unregulated experiments that remain perpetually fundraising.