BlackRock’s 2026 Thematic Outlook places Ethereum on the middle of the theme of tokenization, asking whether or not the community will act as a “toll highway.”
“Greater than 65% of tokenized property are on Ethereum,” BlackRock stated.
The framing pushes Ethereum into an infrastructure position somewhat than a directional name on ETH. The “toll highway” mannequin depends upon the place issuance, settlement, and toll funds happen as real-world property and tokenized money transfer on-chain.
BlackRock cited Coin Metrics and Allium by way of its Visa Onchain Analytics dashboard, noting that stablecoin buying and selling volumes are adjusted to “eradicate inorganic exercise (similar to bots).”
This caveat narrows the metrics traders might depend on when changing tokenization “exercise” into financial throughput.
Ethereum shares are a transferring goal
A market test in late January reveals why the “over 65%” determine needs to be handled as present.
Ethereum’s tokenized RWA market share is 59.84%, with a complete worth of roughly $12.8 billion as of January twenty second, based on the RWA.xyz listing view.
The RWA.xyz community view additionally reveals Ethereum main by worth, with a complete worth of $13,433,02,447 (excluding stablecoins), and the timestamp within the desk is round January twenty first.
There’s room for share drift between these measurements and BlackRock’s Jan. 5 numbers.
This variation can happen as issuance expands to different chains or reporting home windows change.
| information factors | Ethereum worth/share | Timestamp in supply | sauce |
|---|---|---|---|
| BlackRock Tokenization Slide Snapshot | “Greater than 65%” of tokenized property on Ethereum | As of January 5, 2026 | BlackRock PDF (p. 17) |
| RWA.xyz listing overview | Complete quantity roughly $12.8 billion, market share 59.84% | Retrieved January 22, 2026 | RWA.xyz listing |
| RWA.xyz community desk | $13,433,002,447 (excluding stablecoins) | The desk is as of January 22, 2026, and the pack file is as of January 21, 2026. | RWA.xyz community |
For ETH holders, the query wanting ahead is much less about whether or not monetary establishments will tokenize their property and extra about whether or not tokenization will route fee-paying settlements right into a path involving ETH.
BlackRock’s case leans towards Ethereum as the bottom layer for tokenized property. Nonetheless, the position of the bottom layer might turn out to be diluted if execution strikes to rollups, or if tokenized funds are unfold throughout a number of L1s the place customers don’t contact ETH.
Roll-ups and toll passes complicate the “toll highway” concept
L2BEAT’s rollup overview reveals a big pool of worth that has already been “captured” by main Ethereum rollups.
Arbitrum One is listed at $17.52 billion, Base at $12.94 billion and OP Mainnet at $2.33 billion, every labeled as Stage 1.
This structure permits Ethereum to keep up its fee position whereas transitioning the place customers pay their each day charges.
The economics of performing a rollup and payment property range by design, and despite the fact that Ethereum stays the underlying safety layer, the variations are vital for incomes charges.
Tokenized money has the potential to turn out to be a significant throughput driver for tokenized portfolios and comes with clearer state of affairs calculations.
Citi’s stablecoin report fashions issuance in 2030 at $1.9 trillion within the base case and $4.0 trillion within the bull case.
These balances mixed with the 50x velocity assumption modeled roughly $100 trillion and $200 trillion of buying and selling exercise, respectively.
The mechanistic implication is that even small adjustments in market share in a fee community can turn out to be important if exercise scales to that degree.
Measurement methodologies are central when traders search to deduce payment era from uncooked on-chain flows.
Stablecoin “noise”, multi-chain merchandise, and the one ledger debate
Visa claimed that the quantity of stablecoin transfers contained “noise.”
For instance, Visa stated that after eradicating inorganic exercise, stablecoin buying and selling quantity prior to now 30 days decreased from $3.9 trillion to $817.5 billion.
BlackRock’s tokenization slide mentions the identical idea of bot elimination, tying the story to a extra narrowly outlined financial use.
If a “toll highway” is supposed to be monetized by funds, then the investable variable is just not headline switch quantity, however natural fee demand that can not be replicated cheaply elsewhere.
Multi-chain distribution is already displaying up in institutional product design, complicating the linear “tokenization equals ETH demand” argument.
BlackRock’s tokenized fund BUIDL is obtainable on seven blockchains, with wormholes enabling cross-chain interoperability.
This helps a path for non-Ethereum chains to outlive as a distribution and venue-specific utility layer, even when Ethereum maintains the lead in issuance and fee reliability.
One other factor of the controversy focuses on whether or not institutional tokenization will find yourself with one widespread ledger.
The theme was popularized throughout Davos Week. on social media by posts that includes Remark from BlackRock CEO Larry Fink.
A World Financial Discussion board doc printed this month helps a variety of claims about the advantages of tokenization, together with themes similar to fragmentation and quicker funds.
Nonetheless, the WEF stopped wanting validating the “single blockchain” phrase in its 2026 digital asset outlook and tokenization explanatory video.
For Ethereum’s decentralization concept, an investable pressure is whether or not the bottom layer can stay impartial as tokenization turns into tied to large-scale issuers and controlled venues.
Claims of “transparency” rely upon credible resistance to unilateral change and the finality of settlements inherited by downstream courses.
Now, L2BEAT’s staged framework and value-secured information present that rollups are scaling up beneath Ethereum’s safety umbrella, whereas BUIDL’s multi-chain rollout reveals that main issuers are additionally mitigating platform focus dangers.
BlackRock’s “toll highway” slide set the market share metric at over 65%.
The RWA dashboard and multi-chain product launch in late January confirmed that the near-term battleground is measuring general RWA sector share, fee places, and natural utilization.
The identical dynamics are more likely to form how traders interpret the expansion of tokenized authorities bonds and different on-chain issuance classes.