Electric Capital Maps 501 Real-World Yield Sources, Finds 93% Untouched by DeFi

Electric Capital published a research report on Monday, cataloging 501 distinct sources of real-world yield and cross-referencing them against tokenized assets with meaningful on-chain traction today.

The venture firm found that only 34 of those yield sources have any on-chain presence above $50 million, and they cluster in familiar territory: U.S. Treasuries, private credit, corporate bonds, and non-U.S. sovereign debt.

The remaining 93% fall into seven groups defined by what’s blocking tokenization, ranging from legal structuring challenges for asset-backed securities to real-world integration hurdles for commodities and compute infrastructure.

Distribution is the Bottleneck

Perhaps the report’s sharpest observation concerns distribution. Of 35 yield-bearing non-stablecoin RWAs above $50 million, only two have crossed 2,000 holders. While some of that is by design — BlackRock’s BUIDL requires a $5 million minimum — the data underscores how dependent most tokenized assets remain on a handful of large deployers and vault curators.

The report highlights how Centrifuge’s JAAA, a tokenized AAA CLO that held $743 million at the time of data collection, lost 44% of its value in a single day on March 9 after Sky’s Grove protocol redeemed $327 million in one transaction.

BlackRock’s BUIDL faces a similar dynamic: its top 10 holders control 98% of supply, and those holders are largely other protocols — Ethena, Ondo, and Sky.

What Comes Next

Electric Capital argues five compounding forces will pull new asset types on-chain: a growing stablecoin base with diversifying yield preferences, competition among protocols for differentiated products, vault infrastructure that absorbs duration risk, tranching layers that expand buyer bases, and leverage loops that multiply demand for collateral-eligible assets.

The firm also flagged AI infrastructure spending — projected by Goldman Sachs to exceed $500 billion in 2026 — as a catalyst, noting that GPU leasing, data center construction, and energy contracts are natural candidates for on-chain financing.

This article was written with the assistance of AI workflows. All our stories are curated, edited and fact-checked by a human.