Italy overtakes US as top holder of tokenized Treasuries, Chainalysis finds

Investors in Italy, Portugal and Singapore have come to dominate the market for tokenized US Treasuries, together accounting for 66.9% of the geolocated value of these products as of July 1, 2026, according to Chainalysis's 2026 report on North America. The United States, by contrast, holds just 10.5% of the geolocated value — a notable gap given that the underlying asset is American government debt.

Italy leads the ranking on its own, holding 29.9% of geolocated value, ahead of Portugal at 18.8% and Singapore at 18.2%. The figures place three jurisdictions outside the United States at the centre of a market built entirely on US sovereign bonds, underscoring how tokenization has shifted exposure to Treasuries toward investors in Europe and Asia who access the instruments through blockchain rails rather than traditional custody.

Japan presents a contrasting pattern. Japanese holders make up 16.4% of all geolocated wallet addresses holding tokenized Treasuries — the largest share by number of holders of any country in the dataset — yet account for only 0.4% of total value. The disparity suggests a large base of smaller Japanese investors alongside a handful of much larger positions concentrated in Italy, Portugal and Singapore.

Market doubles in a year

The overall tokenized US Treasury market reached $15.42 billion, up 125% from $6.86 billion a year earlier, Chainalysis found. Treasury-based products now represent 42.8% of the total value of all tokenized real-world assets, making them the largest single category within that broader market.

Growth in holdings has not been matched across every corner of the market, however. Lending activity linked to tokenized Treasuries fell 23% during the report period, the only segment of real-world-asset lending to contract while other categories held steady or expanded, according to the report.

BlackRock's BUIDL reclaims the top spot

Among individual products, BlackRock's BUIDL fund returned to first place in the tokenized Treasury market by the end of August 2026, Chainalysis noted, regaining ground after competition from rival issuers earlier in the year.

The concentration of ownership in Italy, Portugal and Singapore, paired with the sharp rise in overall market value, points to tokenized Treasuries becoming a product increasingly defined by demand from outside the United States, even as the instruments remain claims on US government debt.