RWA: Building a Boundless World of Public Ledger for Real Assets

Recently, multiple institutions and projects have made active attempts in the RWA field. The current RWA market size has reached $36.5 billion, with a year-on-year growth of about 60%. Although it still faces numerous challenges, with the participation of traditional financial giants and the support of various governments, RWA is expected to address the value capture problem in blockchain finance and become an important bridge connecting traditional finance and the crypto world.

The ultimate goal of RWA is to seamlessly connect traditional finance with decentralized finance, reshaping the financial system while bringing real-world opportunities onto the chain. In the future, we may be able to freely invest in various assets globally, achieving a truly borderless financial world.

1. Market Dynamics and Key Events

Market Size and Trends

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%. There are more than 185 RWA-related crypto tokens, with a total market value exceeding $10.6 billion, a year-on-year increase of 61%. Traditional financial giants like BlackRock and JPMorgan have also begun to explore asset tokenization, and it is expected that the scale of this field will surpass one trillion in the next five years.

Important Cooperation and Project Progress

• Mantra Chain has obtained the VASP license from VARA in Dubai, becoming the first DeFi platform to receive this license.
• Starcoin is collaborating with Paxos, Ondo, and others, planning to bring $3 billion of RWA on-chain by the end of 2025.
• Alchemy Pay announced the integration of RWAs, introducing traditional assets such as U.S. Treasury bonds and blue-chip stocks.
• Yala launches the RealYield platform, integrating the structured yield market of Bitcoin and RWA.
• Ant Group and several other institutions will host the RWA REAL UP Dubai Summit 2025.

Technological Innovation

• Quant Network launched the Overledger operating system that supports multi-chain applications.
• Securitize launched the sToken Vault feature to enhance RWA liquidity and composability.

Project Financing

• Plume raised $20 million in financing to build a RWA financial ecosystem.
• Tether invests in Quantoz, planning to launch a stablecoin compliant with MiCAR.

Hong Kong and China's development

• Conflux Network collaborates with Ant Group to promote the growth of RWA in Hong Kong.
• The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has launched the "Digital Bond Grant Scheme" and the "Project Ensemble" sandbox.
• The 2025 Web3 Festival will be held in Hong Kong, with RWA tokenization as the focal topic.
• China Pacific Insurance has launched a tokenized US dollar money market fund on HashKey Chain.

2. Industry Challenges and Reflections

main dilemma

1. Regulatory uncertainty: Lack of a unified framework affects global promotion.
2. Barriers to adoption: The user base is limited, primarily consisting of institutions.
3. Sustainability and Volatility: Tokenization may lead to excessive speculation.
4. Technical challenges: Security and scalability issues of smart contracts.
5. Liquidity Issues: Some RWAs still face insufficient liquidity after tokenization.
6. Investor Confidence: Lack of transparency, security, and regulatory compliance may undermine confidence.

Development Thinking

1. Centralized on-chain regulation before and decentralized on-chain circulation after will become the ultimate expression form of RWA.
2. Activating the vitality of the secondary market is the key to the takeoff of the RWA industry.
3. RWA can both tokenize traditional finance and traditionalize cryptocurrencies, achieving the transformation of bad currency into good currency.

Appendix: RWA Regulatory Framework in Major Global Regions

America

• Regulators: SEC, CFTC
• Core regulations: Security tokens are subject to securities law, while commodity tokens are regulated by the CFTC.
• Key measures: Strict KYC/AML requirements, expanded scope of securities identification.

Hong Kong

• Regulatory Authorities: Monetary Authority, Securities and Futures Commission
• Core Framework: Securities Tokens Included in the Securities and Futures Ordinance
• Key Measures: Ensemble Sandbox Program, Stablecoin Gate Policy

EU

• Regulatory Authority: ESMA
• Core Regulations: MiCA, token classifications include ARTs, EMTs, etc.
• Key measures: liquidity restrictions, Luxembourg fund structure as a low-cost issuance channel

Dubai

• Regulatory Authority: DFSA
• Core Framework: Tokenization Sandbox Program
• Advantages: Equivalent to EU regulations, supports DLT applications

Singapore

• Security tokens are incorporated into the Securities and Futures Law.
• Functional tokens must comply with anti-money laundering regulations.

Australia

• ASIC classifies the revenue rights RWA tokens as financial products.
• Must hold AFSL license and disclose risks