US-Iran Conflict Accelerates Wall Street's Shift to Tokenized Assets, RWA Market Surges

Gate News message, April 22 — The ongoing U.S.-Iran conflict is accelerating Wall Street’s adoption of tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) to mitigate geopolitical volatility risks. As of April 2026, the tokenized U.S. Treasuries market has surged to $12.78 billion, while financial institutions increasingly rely on blockchain-based trading to manage 24/7 geopolitical tensions that traditional markets are ill-equipped to handle.

Traditional financial markets’ weekend closures have emerged as a critical vulnerability, with major geopolitical escalations—such as U.S. strikes on Iran in February 2026—frequently occurring during off-market hours. Consequently, Wall Street desks now use tokenized assets and perpetual futures on decentralized platforms as the primary pricing mechanism for gold, oil, and war risk when legacy exchanges are offline. The disruption of physical trade routes, particularly in the Strait of Hormuz, has accelerated demand for instant settlement via blockchain infrastructure.

Major institutional players have transitioned from pilot programs to full-scale deployment. BlackRock has accumulated approximately $1.9 billion in tokenized U.S. Treasuries within its BUIDL fund, while Franklin Templeton and other major firms have integrated tokenized securities into core offerings to avoid traditional banking system bottlenecks during crises. On-chain perpetual futures for commodities like gold and oil now account for more than 67% of builder-deployed contracts on decentralized exchanges, with weekend trading volumes increasing ninefold since the beginning of 2026.

Meanwhile, IMF Chief Economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas emphasized that the U.S.-Iran conflict poses a far greater economic risk than President Trump’s tariffs. He warned that several countries face potential recession, with oil prices averaging $110 per barrel in 2026 and potentially $125 in 2027. Under an adverse scenario, global GDP growth could fall to 2.5%, while the fund’s worst-case projection assumes a deeper conflict driving oil prices higher and global growth to 2%. These forecasts are prompting investors to accelerate adoption of tokenized oil and decentralized finance platforms for hedging against energy supply shocks.