RWA: The Boundless World of Real Assets on Public Ledgers

Recently, multiple institutions and projects have explored various types of assets and infrastructure in the RWA sector. Currently, the RWA market size has reached $36.5 billion, with a year-on-year growth of about 60%, covering areas such as private credit, U.S. Treasury bonds, commodities, real estate, and equity securities. The Hong Kong region mainly focuses on new energy assets.

Although RWA still faces many challenges, such as compliance implementation and global circulation issues, the participation of traditional financial giants and the proactive attempts of various governments make it possible for RWA to address the hollowing out and scaling issues of blockchain finance. As a blockchain financial derivative of traditional assets, RWA precisely compensates for the shortcomings of value capture in the blockchain world, becoming an important bridge between the cryptization of traditional finance and the traditionalization of cryptocurrencies.

In this decentralized world known as the "Dark Forest", RWA may become the "sword bearer" of this parallel world. The true goal of RWA is to seamlessly connect traditional finance with decentralized finance, reshaping traditional finance while bringing real-world opportunities onto the blockchain. We look forward to RWA facilitating global borderless asset investment and financial expression, allowing us to easily diversify our investments worldwide.

RWA is expected to build a world on a public ledger of real assets, a greater borderless world!

Recent Market Trends and Key Events

Market-related Dynamics

1. As of April 21, 2025, the total market value of the RWA market reached $36.5 billion, with a 24-hour growth of 0.7%. The number of RWA-related cryptocurrencies exceeds 185, with a total market value of over $10.62 billion, a year-on-year growth of 61%.

2. Traditional financial giants like BlackRock and Fidelity are starting to pay attention to the RWA sector. BlackRock is seeking regulatory approval for bond and stock tokenization, and JPMorgan has launched an internal tokenization platform. It is expected that the scale of this sector will exceed one trillion in the next five years.

3. Mantra Chain has obtained the VASP license issued by Dubai VARA, becoming the first DeFi platform to receive this license. Mantra is a Layer-1 blockchain built specifically for RWA, allowing for the construction of permissioned applications in a permissionless environment.

4. Stellar blockchain establishes partnerships with Paxos, Ondo, Etherfuse, and SG Forge. The Stellar Development Foundation plans to put $3 billion in RWA on-chain by the end of 2025, which is more than a tenfold increase compared to the end of 2024.

5. The crypto payment company Alchemy Pay announced the integration of RWAs, bringing U.S. Treasury bonds, blue-chip stocks, and more into the crypto ecosystem through partnerships with mainstream RWA providers.

6. The Bitcoin liquidity protocol Yala has launched the RealYield platform, aggregating diverse RWA providers to offer users flexible investment options.

7. On April 30, the RWA REAL UP Dubai Summit 2025 will be held in Dubai, led by Ant Group, with participation from multiple Web3.0 partners.

Technology Innovation Trends

1. Quant Network launched the Overledger system supporting multi-chain applications, enhancing RWA cross-chain liquidity.

2. Securitize launches the sToken Vault feature, enhancing RWA liquidity and composability based on ERC-4626 technology.

Project Financing Dynamics

1. Plume raises $20 million in funding to build an RWA financial ecosystem.

2. Tether invests in Quantoz, planning to launch a stablecoin that complies with MiCAR standards.

Hong Kong and China's RWA Development

1. Conflux Network collaborates with Ant Group to promote the growth of RWA in Hong Kong, jointly participating in China's first renewable energy battery swapping RWA project.

2. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has launched the "Digital Bond Grant Scheme" and the "Project Ensemble" sandbox project to support tokenized applications.

3. The 2025 Web3 Festival will be held in Hong Kong, with RWA tokenization becoming a focal topic. The HKMA's "Project Ensemble" initiative was discussed.

4. China Pacific Insurance launched a tokenized US dollar money market fund on HashKey Chain, raising 100 million USD on the first day.

Industry Observation and Reflection

The main challenges in the current development of the RWA industry

1. Regulatory uncertainty: Differences in regulations among countries result in a lack of a unified framework, impacting global promotion.

2. Adoption barriers: A broader user base needs to accept and use it, currently dominated by institutions.

3. Sustainability and Volatility: Tokenization may lead to excessive speculation, affecting the confidence of long-term investors.

4. Technical Challenges: Smart contract vulnerabilities and scalability issues may affect security and reliability.

5. Liquidity Issues: Some RWA tokens still face insufficient liquidity after tokenization, especially in unfavorable market conditions.

6. Investor confidence: Lack of transparency, security, and regulatory compliance can undermine confidence.

Observation and Reflection

1. Centralized pre-regulation on-chain and decentralized post-regulation circulation are the ultimate expressions of RWA.

2. Activating the secondary market vitality of RWA is the beginning of the industry's takeoff. The distributed digital identity (DID) system will become an important strategic watershed.

3. RWA can both tokenize traditional finance and traditionalize cryptocurrencies. The two move towards each other, promising to achieve the process of good money transforming bad money in cryptocurrencies.