The Liquidity Problem Has More Than One Solution
Most discussions about RWA liquidity focus on secondary trading: building exchanges, attracting market makers, creating order books. These are important. But they are not the only way for token holders to access capital.
Collateral-based liquidity allows investors to borrow against their tokenized holdings without selling them. Instead of finding a buyer, you find a lender. The token stays in your wallet (or a smart contract), and you receive a loan denominated in stablecoins or fiat.
Collateral-based liquidity is already happening at institutional scale.
MakerDAO and the RWA Collateral Model
MakerDAO (now rebranded as Sky) is the largest DeFi consumer of tokenized real-world assets. The protocol's RWA vaults hold over $2 billion in tokenized Treasuries, money market funds, and structured credit products as collateral backing the DAI stablecoin.
In early 2025, MakerDAO's Spark protocol allocated $1 billion to tokenized asset investments, with BlackRock's BUIDL, Superstate, and Centrifuge selected as recipients. This is institutional-grade capital flowing into tokenized assets specifically for their collateral utility.
The model works because MakerDAO does not need the underlying assets to trade actively. It needs them to maintain their value and generate yield. Tokenized Treasuries earning 4-5% annual yield are ideal collateral: stable value, predictable income, and transparent on-chain accounting.
BlackRock BUIDL as Collateral
In November 2025, Binance listed BlackRock's BUIDL fund as off-exchange collateral for institutional trading. BUIDL holders can now use their tokenized Treasury positions to collateralize trading activity on Binance without liquidating the underlying position.
This is significant because it demonstrates that the largest crypto exchange and the largest asset manager in the world both view tokenized securities as viable collateral. The collateral utility creates demand for the token independent of secondary market trading volume.
What This Means for Less Liquid Asset Classes
For tokenized real estate, gemstones, or mineral rights, where secondary trading volumes may be thin for years, collateral-based liquidity offers a bridge.
Consider a scenario: you hold $500,000 in tokenized fractional interests in a gemstone-backed SPV. The secondary market for these tokens is illiquid. Finding a buyer at fair value could take months. But if a lending protocol or institutional lender accepts these tokens as collateral at a 50% loan-to-value ratio, you can access $250,000 in capital without selling.
This is structurally identical to how traditional asset-backed lending works. A homeowner borrows against their house. A business borrows against its inventory. A collector borrows against their art through services like Athena Art Finance. The asset stays in the borrower's possession (or custody), and the lender has a secured claim.
The difference with tokenized assets is that the collateral can be locked in a smart contract with automated liquidation logic, reducing the lender's operational risk and potentially enabling lower interest rates.
The Infrastructure Is Being Built
Several trends are converging to make collateral-based liquidity more accessible for tokenized RWAs:
The 2022 UCC amendments, now adopted by more than half of U.S. states, include Article 12 provisions that address digital assets. Together they build a more coherent legal framework for using tokenized assets as collateral in secured transactions.
DeFi lending protocols are expanding beyond crypto-native collateral. Centrifuge, Maple Finance, and Goldfinch already support lending against tokenized private credit and real-world receivables.
Institutional custody solutions from providers like Fireblocks, BitGo, and Copper support the segregated custody arrangements that lenders require before accepting alternative collateral.
The Practical Takeaway
If you are structuring a tokenized offering and worried about secondary market liquidity, consider this: your investors may not need an exchange to trade their tokens. They may need a lending facility that accepts them as collateral.
Building collateral utility into your token design from the start, through compatible custody arrangements, transparent valuation, and smart contract standards that lending protocols can integrate with, may prove more valuable than chasing secondary market depth.
Not all liquidity needs to come from a trade. Sometimes the best liquidity is a loan.