Key takeaways
- Stellar holds approximately $3.5 billion in tokenized assets
- XRP's market capitalization remains nearly 13 times larger
- Tokenization growth doesn't automatically increase native-token investment demand
Stellar has emerged as a major blockchain for tokenized real-world assets, with approximately $3.5 billion in reported holdings. Yet XRP remains nearly 13 times more valuable than Stellar's native XLM token, highlighting a growing divide between blockchain adoption and cryptocurrency valuations.
As of October 13, XRP's market capitalization stood near $84.65 billion, compared with approximately $6.67 billion for XLM, according to CoinCodex. That represents a 12.7-fold difference despite Stellar's expanding institutional tokenization business.
Stellar's $3.5 Billion Tokenization Market Challenges XRPL
Recent market estimates place Stellar's tokenized real-world assets near $3.5 billion, ahead of approximately $2.5 billion attributed to the XRP Ledger under one broader reporting methodology.
However, the totals depend on which products are included. Stellar's official tokenization overview reports approximately $4 billion as of September 1, while narrower blockchain rankings exclude certain financial instruments and stablecoins.
Stellar's growth is supported by institutional products, including Franklin Templeton's BENJI fund, which held approximately $605 million on Stellar as of October 6. Spiko's tokenized money-market products represented another $1.7 billion.
These investments involve real financial instruments rather than speculative cryptocurrency holdings. Investors purchase tokenized fund shares backed by assets such as government securities, with the blockchain providing issuance, ownership records and settlement infrastructure.
The XRP Ledger has also expanded its institutional business. Previous Treasury tokenization figures showed holdings rising eightfold, from $50 million to approximately $418.5 million over a year.
Why XRP Is Worth Nearly 13 Times More Than XLM
The central distinction is that tokenized assets do not necessarily generate substantial demand for the blockchain's native cryptocurrency.
When an institution purchases a tokenized Treasury fund on Stellar, the investment generally goes into the fund's underlying assets, not into buying XLM. Although transaction fees and account reserves require XLM, these costs are relatively small.
XRP faces a similar limitation. Institutional activity involving stablecoins or tokenized securities does not automatically require investors to accumulate large XRP positions.
However, XRP also attracts demand through investment products and corporate treasury strategies. Evernorth's recent Nasdaq listing brought approximately 473 million XRP into a publicly traded treasury structure, while U.S. spot XRP ETFs provide another investment channel.
Those vehicles create exposure to XRP itself, unlike tokenized funds that primarily hold Treasury securities.
