As BTC continues to hit new highs, driving a bull market, AI and MEME, as tracks that can attract incremental capital and traffic attention, have brought a very strong breakthrough effect. However, for most users, the market opportunities are extremely short-lived, and the overall returns are difficult to evaluate. As another track that can open up a new round of digital currency market scale, can RWA (Real World Assets) take over the next bull market hotspot?
RWA (Real World Assets) is becoming one of the most closely watched narratives and tracks in the current crypto market. From traditional financial giants like BlackRock to crypto industry leaders like Tether, various forces are rushing into this emerging field full of potential, trying to seize the first-mover advantage in this blue ocean.
According to data from RWA.xyz, the total market value of RWA currently hosted on-chain has exceeded $13 billion, and is expanding at a surprising speed. With more and more participants joining, this market may see exponential growth in the next few years, reaching the trillion-dollar scale. Compared to the hype of AI and MEME, RWA, as a track that has not yet fully exploded, has huge potential and opportunities, and is the next high ground worth paying attention to and deploying. The following is an overview of the popular projects in the RWA track.
RWA includes tangible assets (such as real estate, commodities, art, etc.) and intangible assets (such as US Treasuries, fixed-income securities, carbon credits, etc.). This article will divide RWA projects into three major categories, and select the hottest projects from each to introduce: 1) infrastructure-type; 2) projects associated with physical assets such as real estate and art; 3) public credit/fixed-income projects based on US Treasuries, stocks, etc.
Infrastructure
Plume—— Modular RWA Layer 2 Network
Plume is a modular EVM Layer 2 network built specifically for the RWA track, focusing on RWAFi. Plume is committed to lowering the threshold for real-world assets to be on-chain, supporting issuers to tokenize real estate, commodities, and income streams as tradable, financeable, or collateralizable digital assets to meet the diverse needs of retail and institutional investors. In May this year, Plume announced the completion of a $10 million seed round financing. Currently, its ecosystem has over 180 projects with a total deployed asset value of over $1 billion.
Plume has completed the testnet airdrop incentive activity and will soon launch the mainnet, with the TGE following closely. It is reported that Plume's mainnet will support institutional-level tokenization, RWAfi applications, and cross-chain integration, and can be a project to continue to focus on in the RWA track.
Hadron—— Asset Tokenization Platform
Hadron is an asset tokenization platform recently launched by Tether, aiming to simplify the process of converting various assets into digital tokens. Whether it's institutions, funds, governments or private companies, they can easily tokenize stocks, bonds, commodities, funds, and reward points. In addition, the platform also provides a series of powerful tools, including asset tokenization, issuance and redemption, KYC compliance, capital market management, and regulatory support.
This innovative initiative by Tether is expected to significantly accelerate the process of traditional institutions entering the RWA and crypto fields, bringing new opportunities and momentum for the integration of the two domains.
Associated with Physical Assets
ATT—— Digital Advertising Ecosystem Centered on Outdoor Advertising Assets
ATT (Advertising Time Trace) owns outdoor LED advertising assets worth over $10 million in locations such as Lan Kwai Fong, Star Street, Sugar Street, Prosperity Center, K11 Shopping Mall and Causeway Bay AI Mall in Hong Kong, and has built a new digital advertising ecosystem that integrates physical advertising assets, merchant/user resources, and digital technologies through its proprietary DA-AIOT-P (Decentralized Asset - Artificial Intelligence Internet of Things - Payment) mechanism. ATT has tokenized its advertising assets as tradable RWA assets, and stimulates deep user participation in the ecosystem through advertising screen revenue incentives, offline consumption rights, and diversified incentive mechanisms. It is reported that ATT's RWA sales have exceeded 38K, with sales of over $10 million in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Dubai, and Thailand.
In addition, ATT's multi-level burning mechanism ensures the long-term sustainability of its token economic model. As a bridge connecting Web2 and Web3, ATT is expected to become a new traffic entrance for large-scale Web3 applications. The project has not yet issued tokens, but according to its roadmap on the official website, it is expected to launch an airdrop and TGE plan in December, making it a hot project in the track worth focusing on.
Parcl—— Liquidity Trading Platform Centered on Real Estate Physical Assets
Parcl is a real estate perpetual DEX based on Solana, which enhances the liquidity of the real estate market by introducing an index-based liquidity trading model. The platform integrates and updates real-time data from multiple sources of the physical real estate market, generating accurate indices for each region that truly reflect the market value of local real estate. Users can open long or short positions on specific city indices through Parcl, with each index covering the overall market performance of a specific city, allowing traders to participate in speculative or hedging trades on the overall price trend.
With the development of the RWA market and the growth of the Solana ecosystem, Parcl is expected to become an important participant in this track and is worth continuous attention.
Public Credit/Fixed-Income
Centrifuge—— Focused on Real-World Asset Collateralized Lending
Centrifuge is a decentralized protocol focused on RWA credit financing, providing borrowers with financing solutions based on real-world assets without the need for banks or intermediaries. Centrifuge's target users are mainly startups or institutions holding real estate, accounts receivable, invoices and other real-world assets, who can access lending funds by connecting with lenders like MakerDAO and Aave.
Ondo Finance—— Focused on On-Chain Securitization of US Treasuries and Other Fund Products
Ondo Finance is an institutional-grade financial protocol focused on the RWA track, dedicated to bringing traditional low-risk, stable-yield financial products like US Treasuries onto the blockchain. Its main products include tokenized short-term US Treasury ETFs (OUSG), yield-bearing stablecoin alternatives (USDY), and the Flux Finance lending protocol that supports the use of tokenized securities as collateral.
Both Centrifuge and Ondo Finance are early entrants in the RWA track, continuously innovating in products and services. With the market recovery and the rise of the RWA track, their token values have an upward trend and are worth continuous attention.
OpenEden—— Focused on On-Chain Yield of US Treasuries
OpenEden is a smart contract vault focused on tokenizing US Treasuries (T-Bills), providing a way for stablecoin holders to earn on-chain yield from US Treasuries. Through its TBILL token, investors can directly participate in the short-term T-Bills investment pool. TBILL tokens are backed 1:1 by Treasury securities, USDC, and USD reserves, and currently have an APY of around 4.23%.
OpenEden provides investors with a decentralized, low-risk asset allocation option, and it's worth noting that OpenEden is currently the only tokenized US Treasury product that has received an A-rating from Moody's.
Conclusion
The emergence of RWA has broken down the barriers between traditional finance and the crypto ecosystem, providing crypto asset holders with a brand new investment channel, especially in the institution-led domain. At the same time, it has significantly improved the liquidity and transparency of assets, bringing higher efficiency and innovation space to the traditional financial industry. RWA not only provides crypto users with diversified investment options, but also injects momentum into the digital transformation of the traditional financial system, and creates the possibility of more innovative projects.
But with the arrival of the bull market and the rapid development of this track, RWA is expected to become an important bridge connecting real-world assets and the crypto ecosystem in the next few years.
