The global market for real-world asset (RWA) tokenized securities has grown nearly fourfold in eighteen months, reaching roughly $65.1 billion as of the end of July, up from approximately $15.7 billion in early 2025, according to the International Monetary Fund's Global Financial Stability Report released on October 8.

The findings appear in a newly added chapter on financial asset tokenization. The IMF excluded stablecoins from its definition of tokenized securities, focusing instead on blockchain-tradable representations of bonds, stocks, money market funds, gold, real estate and artworks.

The Bank of Korea hosted an event the same day with IMF officials to discuss the report's conclusions.

What does the composition of the market look like?

Bonds and money market funds dominate. The IMF data shows:

• Bond and MMF tokens account for $48 billion, or 78%, of circulating RWA value
• Tokenized stocks total approximately $2.3 billion, a fraction of the overall market
• Institutional investors drive bond and MMF activity, while retail investors conduct most tokenized stock trading

Despite the small base, tokenized equities are scaling fast. Platforms such as Ondo Finance and Securitize now offer tokenized stock services, and the market capitalization of tokenized stocks expanded 230-fold — from around $100 million in early 2025 to $2.3 billion by July, the IMF reported.

How do tokenized stocks interact with conventional markets?

Tokenized stocks typically mirror the underlying share price because issuers or operators purchase physical shares and hold them as collateral. When regular markets close, tokenized prices can move independently.

The IMF's analysis found that 87% of price movements formed in tokenized stock markets after regular trading hours were reflected in actual stock prices during the opening phase of regular markets. "This suggests that tokenized securities and regular stock markets utilize similar information for price determination," the report stated.

The fund based its findings on transaction data from 11 virtual asset exchanges. More than half of trading in tokenized stocks referencing the S&P 500, Nasdaq, Tesla, Google and Nvidia occurred outside regular market hours. Roughly 80% of transactions took the form of fractional investment, in which shares are split into smaller units — a pattern the IMF attributes to investor demand for divisibility and small-scale access.

Why is the IMF calling for new rules?

The report argues that market growth has outpaced the legal architecture. It called for "legal frameworks clarifying token rights, claims, and cross-border transaction rules" to reduce ambiguity and prevent market disputes, and recommended common standards and payment systems for cross-platform asset and currency transfers to improve efficiency beyond platform-specific transactions.

The operational implication is direct: without shared transfer standards and clear legal claims on the underlying collateral, tokenized markets risk fragmenting into closed venue-specific silos, limiting the liquidity benefits that tokenization is meant to deliver.

Where does South Korea stand?

South Korea passed tokenized securities legislation through the National Assembly earlier this year, and financial authorities are finalizing detailed regulations, with trading expected to begin in February 2027. The country has not yet legislated stablecoins.

Bank of Korea Deputy Governor Kwon Min-su addressed the Seoul event and framed the policy tradeoff. "While building faster and more efficient financial infrastructure is crucial, it is equally important to establish soundness, safety measures, and policy frameworks that can operate effectively when needed," he said.

Kwon added that South Korea announced a roadmap for tokenized securities issuance in September and plans to collaborate with the government on a pilot project for tokenizing government bonds next year.

With Korean trading set to launch in February and a government bond tokenization pilot scheduled for 2027, regulators in Seoul and elsewhere now face a narrowing window to translate the IMF's proposed standards into enforceable cross-border rules before the market scales further.