US ETF assets projected to exceed $20T by 2030, but less than $700M lives onchain

The US ETF market is sitting at roughly $10.4 trillion in assets under management as of March 2025. If Citi Research is right, that number could more than double to $25 trillion by 2030. Even the bank’s bear case puts the figure at $20 trillion.

Meanwhile, the amount of ETF assets that actually live onchain? Less than $700 million. That’s roughly 0.007% of the current total.

The traditional ETF boom is accelerating

Going from $10.4 trillion today to $25 trillion in about five years implies a compound annual growth rate north of 19%.

PwC’s global outlook is even more bullish, projecting that worldwide ETF assets could surpass $35 trillion by 2030. The firm had previously estimated $19.5 trillion in global ETF AUM for 2025.

A major catalyst behind the growth is active ETFs. Active ETFs employ portfolio managers who make real-time allocation decisions, and they’re expected to surpass $4 trillion in global AUM.

Defined-outcome products are also gaining traction. These are ETFs designed to deliver specific return profiles, like buffer strategies that cap upside in exchange for downside protection.

Onchain ETFs: big ambition, small footprint

Platforms like Ondo Global Markets have begun tokenizing equities and ETF shares on blockchain rails, reporting around $700 million in total value locked across tokenized stocks and ETFs.

Blockchain settlement can be near-instantaneous rather than the traditional T+1 (or sometimes T+2) cycle. Smart contracts can automate dividend distributions, corporate actions, and compliance checks. Fractional ownership becomes trivially easy. And 24/7 trading becomes possible without the overhead of maintaining exchange infrastructure across time zones.

What the gap means for crypto and traditional finance

Traditional ETFs took roughly 30 years to go from novelty to dominant market structure. The first US-listed ETF launched in 1993, and it wasn’t until the mid-2010s that ETFs truly became the gravitational center of retail investing.

Projects like BlackRock’s BUIDL fund and Franklin Templeton’s onchain money market fund have shown that major institutions are at least willing to experiment, even if the volumes remain modest.

Even if tokenized ETFs capture just 1% of that $25 trillion total by 2030, you’re looking at $250 billion, a figure that would make the current $700 million look like a seed round.

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