US Risks Losing RWA Tokenization Rule-Writing Role

U.S. regulators have yet to produce a purpose-built framework for RWA tokenization, and the gap between American policy output and that of peer jurisdictions is now wide enough to draw formal concern. American Banker published an analysis this month warning that the slow pace of U.S. rule-writing on asset tokenization could allow other jurisdictions to establish de facto global standards before Washington produces binding guidance — a dynamic already visible in the divergence between U.S. and EU regulatory output.

The most concrete U.S. action to date was the SEC joint statement on tokenized securities, issued on January 28, 2026 by the Divisions of Corporation Finance, Investment Management, and Trading and Markets. The statement defined a tokenized security as a financial instrument formatted as or represented by a crypto asset, where ownership records are maintained in whole or in part on a crypto network. It also confirmed that recording ownership on-chain rather than off-chain does not alter the application of federal securities law. What the statement did not do, as Morgan Lewis noted in its analysis of the document, was establish new rules, exemptions, or a bespoke regulatory regime for tokenized securities.

On the legislative side, the record is similarly incomplete. The GENIUS Act, which regulated stablecoin issuance, was enacted in July 2025. A January 2025 executive order directed federal agencies to prioritize digital asset policy. But the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act — designed to define the respective roles of the SEC and CFTC and establish rules for digital asset businesses — failed to reach finalization in 2025. According to Skadden's 2026 digital assets outlook, the CLARITY Act's stall left the broader market structure question unresolved heading into this year.

The contrast with the EU is direct. The Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation entered into force in June 2023. Stablecoin rules began enforcement in June 2024, and full Crypto-Asset Service Provider licensing requirements became active by December 30, 2024. Under Articles 109 and 110 of MiCA, ESMA was mandated to publish a central register of crypto-asset white papers, authorized service providers, and non-compliant entities by the same December 2024 deadline. ESMA and the European Banking Authority have since issued over a dozen Level 2 Regulatory Technical Standards covering whitepaper requirements and reserve audits. As of November 2025, more than 53 companies had received CASP licenses under the framework. CryptoVerse Lawyers, citing a projection that has not been independently verified by regulators, placed the potential size of the EU's regulated token market at €2 trillion by 2028.

The scale of U.S. tokenization activity makes the regulatory gap more consequential. According to MEXC's aggregation of RWA.xyz data, roughly $18 billion in tokenized real-world assets are live across public chains, with the bulk U.S.-issued or U.S.-anchored. BlackRock's BUIDL — a tokenized money market fund — accounts for approximately 40% of live tokenized Treasury assets under management, or about $2.9 billion of a $13 billion-plus total. Franklin Templeton's BENJI, Ondo's USDY, Hashnote's USYC, and Superstate's USTB together bring the combined tokenized Treasury figure to around $12 billion. Tokenized private credit from Maple Finance, Centrifuge, Goldfinch, Clearpool, and Figure totals approximately $2.5 billion. Tokenized fractional real estate — from platforms including RealT, Lofty, and Roofstock onChain — remains the smallest segment at roughly $300 million combined.

Despite that volume, the products operate under legacy securities frameworks — Regulation D, Regulation A+, and standard SEC registration — rather than rules written with tokenized asset structures in mind. The SEC's January statement categorized tokenized securities into two types: those issued by or on behalf of the original issuer, and those tokenized by unaffiliated third parties. That taxonomy is descriptive rather than prescriptive; it does not resolve questions around secondary market structure, custody standards specific to on-chain assets, or cross-border recognition of tokenized instruments.

The American Banker analysis did not identify a specific legislative vehicle or regulatory docket that would close the gap in the near term. The SEC statement from January 2026 clarified how existing law applies to tokenized securities but did not create new compliance pathways, licensing categories, or safe harbors for tokenization platforms. The CLARITY Act remains unfinished. No U.S. federal agency has published a unified framework covering tokenized real estate, tokenized bonds, and tokenized fund units under a single regulatory roof — the structural equivalent of what MiCA provides across 27 EU member states.