In-Depth Analysis of RWA Track: The Growth Engine of the Crypto Market in 2025

The rapid development of decentralized finance ( DeFi ) has created a financial ecosystem that does not rely on traditional banking systems. However, the DeFi sector is highly dependent on encryption assets and lacks support from real-world assets ( RWA ), which limits its development to the fluctuations of the crypto market. The rise of the RWA sector is breaking this limitation by combining real-world financial assets with blockchain technology, enhancing the stability of on-chain financial products and bringing significant liquidity increases to the market. This sector has become a key bridge for institutional investors and mainstream financial institutions to enter the crypto industry, which is expected to drive the entire blockchain industry into a new growth cycle.

The core of RWA is to digitize various assets in traditional financial markets ( such as bonds, real estate, stocks, artworks, private equity, etc. ) and convert them into tokenized assets that can be traded, collateralized, or lent on the blockchain through blockchain technology. This not only enhances asset liquidity but also reduces the friction costs in traditional financial markets, such as long transaction clearing times, high intermediary costs, and limited liquidity. Taking the bond market as an example, traditional trading involves multiple institutions and cumbersome processes, while RWA tokenization can achieve real-time clearing on-chain, greatly improving efficiency and reducing costs. At the same time, the transparency and traceability of blockchain make RWA asset management more transparent, effectively reducing market fraud and improper operations.

As technology matures and demand rises, the RWA sector is attracting more and more institutional participation. BlackRock, one of the world's largest asset management companies, has launched a blockchain-based tokenized fund called BUIDL, which mainly holds stable assets such as U.S. Treasury bonds and provides more efficient transactions through blockchain. Traditional financial giants like Franklin Templeton are also actively trying to tokenize some of their fund products to facilitate investor participation. This indicates that the RWA sector has become a core trend in the digitalization of the global financial market.

From a technical perspective, the development of RWA relies on multiple key infrastructures, including blockchain underlying networks, smart contracts, oracles, decentralized identity, and compliance management, etc. Ethereum remains the preferred network for RWA tokenization, with many institutions deploying smart contracts to manage RWA assets on it. L2 solutions ( such as Arbitrum and Optimism ) have become popular choices for trading RWA assets to reduce costs and improve throughput. Public chains like Solana, Avalanche, and Polkadot are also exploring RWA application scenarios, striving to seize market share.

In terms of market size, the Boston Consulting Group estimates that by 2030, the RWA sector will reach a scale of $16 trillion, far exceeding the current total market value of the crypto market. The global real estate market is valued at approximately $300 trillion; if 1% of assets are tokenized, a $3 trillion RWA market can be created. The global bond market exceeds $120 trillion, and if 1% enters the blockchain, it will form a $1.2 trillion emerging market.

Institutional funds are rapidly flowing into the RWA sector, indicating that it has become an important component of the global financial system. This trend is expected to continue as government support for the encryption industry strengthens by 2025. For investors, the RWA sector not only provides new market opportunities but may also become an important bridge for the integration of the crypto market and traditional finance. In the coming years, with the improvement of infrastructure, the implementation of regulatory frameworks, and the layout of mainstream financial institutions, the RWA sector is expected to become a new growth engine for the blockchain industry, driving the digital transformation of the entire financial market.

Overall, the rise of the RWA track represents the maturity of blockchain technology and the expansion of application scenarios, indicating that the global financial market has entered a new stage of decentralization and efficiency. For market participants, seizing the opportunity of RWA asset tokenization and laying out infrastructure and key protocols will become the core proposition for the development of the crypto industry in the coming years.

Current Market Environment: Macroeconomic Factors and Catalysts for RWA Development

Amidst the increasing uncertainty in the global economy, changes in liquidity cycles, and the booming development of the digital asset market, the RWA sector is becoming one of the most important rise points in the encryption industry. The adjustments in the Federal Reserve's monetary policy, persistent inflation pressures, volatility in the debt market, and increased institutional participation have brought unprecedented opportunities for the development of RWA. At the same time, the drawbacks of the traditional financial system and the maturity of DeFi are driving the migration of real-world assets onto the blockchain. This article explores the catalytic factors for the development of the RWA sector from five aspects: the global macroeconomic situation, liquidity environment, policy regulatory trends, institutional entry, and the maturity of the DeFi ecosystem.

Global macroeconomic situation: inflation, interest rates, and changes in market risk aversion sentiment

The global macroeconomic environment is a core variable affecting the development of RWA. In recent years, the uncertainty of global economic growth has increased due to the sluggish economic recovery after the pandemic, escalating geopolitical conflicts, supply chain issues, and adjustments in central bank policies. Among these, changes in inflation and interest rate policies directly affect capital liquidity and investors' asset allocation strategies, indirectly promoting the development of the RWA sector.

Firstly, the aggressive interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve over the past two years have had a profound impact on the global market. Since 2022, the Federal Reserve has implemented multiple interest rate increases to curb high inflation, leading to a tightening of global liquidity. In a high-interest-rate environment, investors' risk appetite has decreased, impacting traditional financial markets, with capital increasingly flowing into low-risk, high-yield assets. This has prompted investors to focus on government bonds, gold, real estate, etc., and the tokenization of these assets has become an important growth point in the RWA track. For example, the tokenization of US Treasury bonds, ( Ondo Finance's OUSG token, has become an important investment tool in the crypto market due to its high annualized yield of over 5%, attracting a significant influx of DeFi funds.

Secondly, the global debt crisis is intensifying, and the RWA sector has become an important option for capital risk aversion. By 2024, the total global debt will exceed 300 trillion USD, with US national debt surpassing 34 trillion USD and fiscal deficits reaching new highs. Investors' confidence in traditional financial markets has been shaken, leading them to seek more transparent and efficient financial infrastructure. The trustless, borderless, and low-cost characteristics of blockchain technology make the on-chainization of RWA assets the best solution. In a high-inflation environment, the demand for gold and commodities has surged, and gold tokens ) such as PAXG and XAUT( have become popular assets in the crypto market.

Overall, the increase in global economic uncertainty has heightened investors' demand for safe-haven assets. Innovations in the RWA sector have made it easier for these assets to enter the crypto market, driving explosive growth in this sector.

) Liquidity environment: The Federal Reserve's policy shift and changes in market risk appetite

The rapid development of the RWA track cannot be separated from changes in the global liquidity environment. From 2022 to 2023, the Federal Reserve's significant interest rate hikes led to a severe tightening of global market liquidity. Since 2024, with inflationary pressures easing, the Federal Reserve has entered the final stages of interest rate hikes and may even begin a rate-cutting cycle, leading to changes in market liquidity expectations, which greatly promotes the development of the RWA track.

Firstly, the adjustment of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy has increased the market's demand for stable yield assets. The DeFi ecosystem experienced a phase of high volatility and high risk from 2021 to 2022, and current investors are more inclined towards low-risk, predictable yield products. The RWA sector just happens to provide this solution. For instance, bond tokenization and private market tokenization allow investors to enjoy a more stable and compliant yield model within the DeFi ecosystem, which is one of the important reasons for the RWA's explosion in 2024.

Secondly, from the perspective of the crypto market, BTC will welcome the approval of the spot ETF in 2024, with institutional capital continuing to flow in, and the entire crypto market's capital pool expanding. These funds need to seek more stable investment targets outside of BTC. RWA assets, due to their deep ties with traditional financial markets, have become an important allocation direction for institutional capital. Asset management giants like BlackRock and Fidelity have begun to pay attention to the RWA field and have launched related investment products, further driving the rise of the RWA sector.

In addition, with the decline of DeFi interest rates, the yield advantage of the RWA track has become increasingly evident. From 2021 to 2022, the yield in the DeFi ecosystem generally reached over 10%, while by 2024, the yield of most stablecoins in DeFi protocols has dropped to between 2% and 4%. In contrast, the yield on US Treasury bonds in the RWA track remains above 5%, making RWA assets a new pillar of DeFi yields and attracting a large influx of funds.

( Policy Regulatory Trends: The Compliance Process of the RWA Track

In the development of the encryption industry, regulatory issues have always been a focal point of market concern, and the rise of the RWA track is due to its greater compliance compared to other DeFi tracks, able to meet the needs of institutional investors. Regulatory agencies in various countries are gradually accepting asset tokenization as an innovative model and are exploring how to support the development of the RWA ecosystem through legal frameworks.

First, the U.S. SEC and CFTC have conducted research in areas such as security tokenization and bond tokenization, and have allowed certain institutions to issue tokenized assets within a compliance framework. For example, Securitize has been recognized by the SEC and is able to issue blockchain-based security tokens, providing a good demonstration for the compliance of the RWA track.

Secondly, regions such as Europe, Japan, and Singapore have a relatively open attitude towards the RWA sector. For instance, Switzerland's SDX and Germany's BSDEX have both supported tokenized stock trading, and the Singapore government is actively promoting the on-chain development of RWA assets. These favorable policies make institutional investors more willing to enter the RWA sector, providing a solid foundation for its development.

) Institutional entry and the maturity of the DeFi ecosystem

In addition to macroeconomics and policy regulation, the entry of institutions and the maturity of the DeFi ecosystem are also important driving factors for the rise of the RWA sector. Traditional institutions are beginning to pay attention to the integration of DeFi and TradFi, and many leading asset management companies, banks, and hedge funds have started researching how to issue and trade RWA assets on the blockchain. At the same time, the DeFi ecosystem is gradually shifting from "high volatility, high risk" to "stable returns, compliant development," making the RWA sector a core beneficiary of this trend. More and more DeFi protocols ### such as MakerDAO, Aave, and Maple Finance ### are deeply integrating with RWA assets, which enhances the sustainability of the RWA sector.

In summary, the explosion of the RWA track is not only the result of market demand but also a product of the joint effects of the global macro economy, policy regulation, liquidity environment, and the evolution of the DeFi ecosystem. Driven by these catalytic factors, the RWA track is expected to become one of the most important engines for the rise of the crypto market in 2024-2025.

Main Classification and Core Project Analysis of the RWA Track

As the crypto market continues to mature and institutional funds accelerate their influx, the rise of the RWA sector has become a significant trend. The core goal of the RWA sector is to issue, trade, and manage traditional financial market assets, such as bonds, real estate, commodities, and private equity, through blockchain tokenization, making them more liquid, more accessible, and able to integrate with the DeFi ecosystem. This not only brings the convenience of decentralized finance to traditional assets but also provides a more stable source of returns for the DeFi ecosystem. The application scenarios of the RWA sector are rich, with different types of real-world assets exhibiting various forms on-chain, typically categorized into the following major categories: bond-type RWA, commodity and bulk asset RWA, real estate RWA, equity and private market RWA, infrastructure and supply chain RWA. In this section, we will explore the core logic of these categories in detail and analyze representative projects in the current market to gain a deeper understanding of the RWA sector layout.

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) Bond-type RWA: On-chain U.S. Treasuries, government bonds, and corporate bonds

The bond market is one of the most important asset classes in the global financial markets, especially U.S. Treasury bonds (UST), which are considered one of the safest assets in the world and are widely used for hedging and reserve assets. With the maturation of the DeFi ecosystem, more and more institutions are trying to bring bond assets onto the blockchain to achieve transparency in returns, enhanced liquidity, and the possibility of global trading.

Currently, the global debt market size has exceeded 300 trillion USD, with a very high proportion of US debt, while the total market value of the crypto market is only 2-3 trillion USD. If RWA track bond-like assets can be smoothly introduced into the DeFi ecosystem, it will greatly change the market landscape. The liquidity of the traditional bond market is limited by factors such as trading hours, market access thresholds, and settlement cycles, while on-chain bonds can provide 24/7 trading, borderless access, and second-level settlement.