RWA: Building a New World of Public Ledgers for Real-World Assets

In the past month, several institutions and projects, including BlackRock, Mantra Chain, Ondo, Alchemy Pay, and Yala, have actively explored the RWA field. Currently, the RWA market size has reached $36.5 billion, with a year-on-year growth of approximately 60%. Although there are still many challenges, the participation of traditional financial giants and support from various governments are driving RWA to become an important bridge linking traditional finance and the crypto world.

RWA is expected to become the "sword bearer" in the blockchain financial world, addressing the shortcomings of traditional blockchain value capture. It not only brings real-world opportunities onto the chain but also has the potential to enable global borderless asset investment and financial expression. In the future, we might be able to purchase NASDAQ stocks in Hong Kong, make deposits in Russia, and co-invest in Dubai real estate with global investors. RWA is building a public ledger world based on real assets.

Recent Market Trends and Key Events

Market Related Dynamics

1. The market size continues to grow, with a total market capitalization reaching 36.5 billion dollars as of April 21. There are over 185 RWA-related tokens, with a total market cap exceeding 10.62 billion dollars, a year-on-year increase of 61%.

2. Traditional financial giants such as BlackRock and JPMorgan are actively laying out plans in the RWA sector. It is expected that the scale of this sector will surpass one trillion in the next five years.

3. Mantra Chain has obtained the VASP license issued by VARA in Dubai, becoming the first DeFi platform to receive this license.

4. Stellar blockchain collaborates with multiple institutions, planning to put $3 billion RWA on-chain by the end of 2025.

5. Alchemy Pay announced that its products will integrate RWAs, introducing high-quality traditional assets such as U.S. treasury bonds and blue-chip stocks through partnerships.

6. Bitcoin liquidity protocol Yala launches the RealYield platform, integrating RWA to provide a structured yield market.

Technology Innovation Trends

1. Quant Network has launched the Overledger system that supports 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 compliant with MiCAR standards.

Hong Kong and China RWA Development

1. Conflux Network collaborates with Ant Digital Technology to promote the growth of RWA in Hong Kong.

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

3. The 2025 Web3 Festival will be held in Hong Kong, with RWA tokenization becoming a focal topic.

4. China Pacific Insurance has launched a tokenized US dollar money market fund on the HashKey Chain.

Industry Observations and Reflections

The main challenges in the development of the RWA industry

1. Regulatory uncertainty: The lack of a unified regulatory framework globally affects the promotion of RWA and compliance costs.

2. Adoption barriers: A broader user base is needed for acceptance and usage, currently dominated by institutional participation.

3. Sustainability and Volatility: Tokenization may trigger excessive speculation, impacting the confidence of long-term investors.

4. Technical challenges: vulnerabilities in smart contracts and scalability issues may affect the security and reliability of RWA.

5. Liquidity issues: Some RWAs may still face insufficient liquidity after tokenization.

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

Observations and Thoughts from DePINone Labs

1. The ultimate expression of RWA: a combination of centralized pre-regulation on-chain and decentralized post-regulation circulation.

2. Activating the vitality of the secondary market is the key to the RWA industry's takeoff, and the distributed digital identity (DID) system will become an important infrastructure.

3. RWA can achieve the tokenization of traditional finance and also promote the traditionalization of cryptocurrencies, with both moving in opposite directions.

Major Jurisdictional RWA Regulatory Frameworks Worldwide

USA: SEC and CFTC dominate, emphasizing KYC/AML, and expanding the scope of securities identification.

Hong Kong: The Monetary Authority and the Securities and Futures Commission regulate, launching the Ensemble sandbox program and stablecoin gateway policy.

EU: The MiCA regulations are about to take effect, requiring RWA issuers to establish EU entities and undergo audits.

Dubai: DFSA launches tokenized sandbox, providing a compliance shortcut.

Singapore: Security tokens included in the Securities and Futures Act, MAS promotes pilot through sandbox.

Australia: ASIC classifies revenue rights RWA tokens as financial products, requiring licensed operation.