Singapore has been rated top in the 2025 global crypto rankings with a 7.5 out of 10 score, reflecting accelerated adoption and regulatory alignment. The report highlights a 63% jump in Real-World Asset (RWA) tokenization to $2.57 billion in early 2025, placing Singapore at the center of institutional and market-infrastructure developments.
Policy-led tokenization and institutional market structure
The ranking credits Singapore’s coordinated policy and market initiatives that combine regulatory clarity with active fintech experimentation. Singapore’s supervisory authority has implemented pilot projects that settle tokenized government instruments over central bank digital currency rails, creating a practical bridge between fiat and on-chain settlement. This mix of deliberate policy design and live operational trials has attracted institutional activity and higher user engagement, producing a governance environment that participants view as predictable for custody, token issuance and settlement arrangements.
RWA tokenization increased 63% to $2.57 billion in early 2025, driven by demand for fractionalized, more liquid exposure to previously illiquid assets. Large financial groups are integrating tokenized settlement programs and launching dedicated strategies, signaling that tokenized instruments are moving from experiment status into formal components of portfolio architecture. Industry forecasts cited in the report project multi-trillion-dollar potential over the next decade, underscoring scale-up scenarios that would materially reshape asset servicing, custody and reconciliation processes.
Operational implications for treasuries and trading desks include revised liquidity models, broader collateral frameworks and new onboarding standards for tokenized instruments. For compliance teams, tokenized RWAs create a requirement to reconcile on-chain provenance with off-chain legal title and to verify proof-of-reserves or audit trails that satisfy existing transparency and reporting obligations. As more instruments move on-chain, standard operating procedures must extend to wallet controls, smart-contract risk reviews and ongoing monitoring of tokenized exposures.
The hybrid on-chain/off-chain nature of RWAs increases the attack surface and changes risk profiles. The report records $14.6 million in RWA-specific drains in the first half of 2025, with key failures linked to oracle manipulation and custodial weaknesses. Technology providers and auditors have responded with proof-of-reserves tools and structured due-diligence frameworks intended to strengthen asset-backing claims and custody segmentation, but these mitigations primarily relocate risk toward governance quality, mandatory disclosures and third-party attestations.
Parallel to national initiatives, the European Union’s harmonization agenda scheduled for mid-2025 is highlighted as a global comparator that will shape cross-border compliance strategies for service providers. Stablecoin experiments tied to sovereign currencies and a reported 9.6% share of on-chain payroll transactions introduce new prudential and AML oversight challenges, as routine payment flows begin to intersect with tokenized instruments and programmable money.
Singapore’s top ranking reflects a convergence of supportive policy, institutional participation and rapid RWA tokenization growth, with $2.57 billion noted in early 2025 and high-profile security incidents prompting new technical and governance responses. For providers and institutional users, the development demands enhanced reporting, segregated custody arrangements and updated risk-management frameworks to manage cross-domain exposures as tokenization scales.
