Since last year, the RWA track has gradually attracted the attention of traditional financial institutions. BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, and other asset management giants have taken the lead in tokenizing assets such as US Treasuries and putting them on the chain, and other institutions and protocols also have plans to tokenize other real-world assets.

With the SEC relaxing regulations in the crypto space, more teams have entered the RWA field. Recently, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and CFO Alesia Haas stated that they are considering tokenizing the company's stock to enable trading on the Base platform, making "stock tokenization" a hot topic in the market.

In response, token issuance platform Backed Finance has launched a tokenized version of Coinbase stock, wbCOIN, on the Base chain, attracting much market attention. However, in addition to Backed Finance, another protocol focused on stock tokenization, WhiteRock, has also risen rapidly in recent days.

What is WhiteBlock?

WhiteRock is a brokerage platform that focuses on tokenizing US Treasuries and US stocks, and plans to expand into lending, real estate, and other functions in the future. According to official data, WhiteRock's current statistics are as follows:

• TVL exceeds $150 million
• Over 3,500 users
• Trading volume exceeds $100 million

Furthermore, according to the official website, the WhiteRock team comes from well-known groups such as Goldman Sachs, ING Group, and Emirates NBD Bank, and cooperates with renowned traditional financial institutions like BlackRock and StoneX. However, the team has not yet officially released the member list, and whether the cooperation with these institutions is as stated on the website remains to be verified.

Product Introduction

The platform currently has 7 products available for purchase, including the yield-bearing stablecoin USDX pegged to USD, the protocol's native token White, and 5 US stock tokens including AAPL, TSLA, MSTR, COIN, and NVDA.

• Yield-bearing Stablecoin USDX: USDX is an asset-backed stablecoin based on US Treasuries, and users can earn an additional 5% yield just by holding it.
• Tokenized Stocks: Unlike previous synthetic assets, the US stock tokens on WhiteRock are backed by actual custodied stocks, and the blockchain's speed advantage enables T+0 settlement, while also avoiding the drawback of market "trading hours".

Asset Tokenization Workflow

According to the official documentation, users need to complete KYC and AML procedures before using WhiteRock, to ensure that each transaction flow complies with regulations.

As for how WhiteRock converts the user's deposited USDT into fiat to purchase RWA assets:

• First, the user's deposited USDT will be converted to USD through Coinbase Prime and transferred to WhiteRock's bank account.
• Then, WhiteRock will hand over the USD to the asset management company Akula Investment Management for investment, and Akula has also set up a dedicated DeepSea Fund for WhiteRock.
• Finally, Akula will execute the trades through brokers to purchase US stocks and other RWA assets, completing the entire purchase cycle.

WhiteRock Roadmap

Additionally, WhiteRock has also released a project roadmap, including plans for lending, USDX applications, cross-chain applications, and other functions to be released in the future, with the current stage being the first phase.

• Tokenized Assets, $WHITE and USDX - Phase 1 (Launch): The trading infrastructure is now fully operational, with stocks and bonds listed on-chain. The $WHITE token has been launched, allowing users to purchase the native stablecoin USDX to earn US dollar yields. Institutional partnerships have been established.
• Lending Platform - Phase 2: Users can borrow against WhiteRock's native stocks and bonds, all supported by an institutional-grade risk management framework. This also allows other existing RWA protocols to use their tokens as collateral to obtain liquidity.
• Expanding USDX - Phase 3: USDX is expanding in the DeFi space. It will be equipped with major DEX integrations, cross-chain capabilities, and advanced yield optimization strategies built directly into the token.
• WhiteNetwork and WhiteX - Phase 4: The high-speed order book DEX WhiteX will be built on our regulatory-compliant WhiteNetwork blockchain, enabling permissionless market creation for any financial asset.
• Expanding WhiteX Tokenization Scope - Phase 5: The universal tokenization platform will bring real estate, intellectual property, and commodities on-chain - if it has value, it can be tokenized and traded on WhiteRock.

Native Token $WHITE Surges Over 1000% in the Past Month

Since WhiteRock was launched in October last year, many data points are still in the early stages. After initial volatility, the native token $WHITE has been consolidating at a low market cap (around $80-100 million) from January to February this year.

However, at the end of February, WHITE seemed to show signs of a breakout, and on March 5th, when the Coinbase CEO sparked the "stocks on-chain" hype, its market cap surged to $900 million, a 10-fold increase from the low. But after the "stocks on-chain" hype subsided, WHITE's market cap has severely declined and is now fluctuating in the $200-500 million range.

Currently, WHITE is only listed on DEXes (Uniswap) and a few tier-2 and tier-3 exchanges (MEXC, BingX, KCEX).

Notably, according to Arkham data, the Trump family's World Liberty project and Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin's address have both received 1 billion $WHITE (around $5.11 million). It's unclear whether these tokens were obtained through investment or platform donations.

Conclusion

Against the backdrop of the hot RWA sector, WhiteRock is expected to break through the market through "stocks on-chain". Benchmarked against the current RWA protocol leader Ondo, WhiteRock still has 7-8 times upside potential. The author will include it in the potential observation list.

However, the crypto market narrative changes rapidly, and liquidity is also affected by the overall economic environment. In the current high-uncertainty environment, investors still need to carefully evaluate token prices and project risks.