As BTC continues to break new highs, triggering a bull market, AI and MeMe have emerged as tracks capable of attracting incremental funds and traffic attention, bringing a strong breakout effect. However, for most users, market opportunities are extremely short-lived, and comprehensive returns are difficult to assess. As another track that can open a new round of digital currency market scale, can RWA take over as the next bull market hotspot?
RWA (Real World Assets) is becoming one of the most attention-grabbing narratives and tracks in the current crypto market. From traditional financial giants like BlackRock to crypto industry leaders like Tether, various forces are competing to enter this promising emerging field, trying to seize the opportunity in this blue ocean.
According to data from RWA.xyz, the current total market value of RWA held on-chain has surpassed $13 billion and is expanding at an astonishing rate. As more participants join, this market may experience exponential growth in the coming years, reaching a trillion-dollar scale. Compared to the AI and Meme craze, RWA, as a track that has yet to fully explode, holds enormous potential and opportunities, making it a highland worth attention and layout. Below are the reviews of various popular projects in the RWA track.
RWA includes tangible assets (such as real estate, commodities, artworks, etc.) and intangible assets (such as U.S. Treasury bonds, fixed income securities, carbon credits, etc.). This article categorizes RWA projects into three main categories, selecting popular projects for introduction: first, infrastructure projects; second, projects related to physical assets such as real estate and artworks; third, public credit/fixed income projects based on publicly issued or traded markets such as U.S. Treasuries and stocks.
Infrastructure
Plume - Modular RWA Layer 2 Network
Plume is a modular EVM Layer 2 network specifically designed for the RWA track, focusing on RWAFi. Plume is dedicated to lowering the threshold for on-chain real-world assets, supporting issuers in tokenizing real-world assets such as real estate, commodities, and income streams, thus transforming them into tradable digital assets for financing or collateral use, meeting the diverse needs of retail and institutional investors. In May of 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 exceeding $1 billion.
Plume has completed the testnet airdrop incentive activity and will soon launch the mainnet, with TGE following closely behind. It is reported that the Plume mainnet will support institutional-level tokenization, RWAfi applications, and cross-chain integration, and it can be continuously monitored as a project in the RWA track.
Hadron - Asset Tokenization Platform
Hadron is an asset tokenization platform recently launched by Tether, aimed at simplifying the process of converting various assets into digital tokens. Whether institutions, funds, governments, or private companies, they can easily tokenize various assets such as stocks, bonds, commodities, funds, and reward points. In addition, the platform offers a range of powerful tools, including asset tokenization, issuance and destruction, 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 - A digital advertising ecosystem centered on large advertising screen assets
ATT (Advertising Time Trace) owns LED advertising assets worth over ten million dollars in places like Lan Kwai Fong, Starlight Walk, Sugar Street, Good Luck Center, K11 Shopping Mall, and Causeway Bay AI Mall. Through its original DA-AIOT-P (Decentralized Assets - Artificial Intelligence Internet of Things - Payment) mechanism, it has built a new digital advertising ecosystem that integrates physical advertising assets, advertising e-commerce merchants/users, and digital technology. ATT converts advertising assets into tradable RWA assets and stimulates deep 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, achieving over ten million dollars in sales in regions like Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Dubai, and Thailand.
Additionally, ATT's multi-tiered destruction mechanism ensures the long-term sustainability of the token economic model. As a bridge connecting Web2 and Web3, ATT is expected to become a new traffic entry point for large-scale Web3 applications. The project has not yet issued tokens, and according to its official website's roadmap, it is expected to launch an airdrop and TGE plan in December, making it a key focus for popular projects in the track.
Parcl - A liquidity trading platform centered on real estate physical assets
Parcl is a Solana-based perpetual DEX for real estate that enhances market liquidity by introducing an index-based liquidity trading model. The platform integrates and updates real-time data from multiple sources in the physical real estate market, generating accurate indices for each region that truly reflect the local real estate market value. Users can open long or short positions on specific city indices through Parcl, with each index covering the overall market performance of specific cities, allowing traders to speculate or hedge against city-wide price trends.
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 collateral financing
Centrifuge is a decentralized protocol focused on RWA credit financing, dedicated to providing borrowers with financing solutions based on real-world assets without banks or intermediaries. The target users of Centrifuge are mainly startups or institutions holding real-world assets such as real estate, receivables, and invoices, linking with lenders like MakerDAO and Aave to provide borrowing funds.
Ondo Finance - Focused on the on-chaining of U.S. Treasury and other fund products
Ondo Finance is an institutional-level financial protocol focusing on the RWA track, dedicated to bringing traditional financial products like U.S. Treasuries, which are low-risk and stable in returns, on-chain. Its main products include tokenized short-term U.S. Treasury ETFs (OUSG), yield-bearing stablecoin alternatives (USDY), and Flux Finance lending protocol that supports tokenized securities as collateral.
Centrifuge and Ondo Finance are both early entrants in the RWA track, continuously innovating in products and services. With the market warming up and the rise of the RWA track, their token values show a trend of recovery and are worth continuous attention.
OpenEden - Focused on on-chain yields from U.S. Treasury Bills
OpenEden is a smart contract vault focusing on tokenizing U.S. Treasury Bills (T-Bills), providing stablecoin holders with a way to earn on-chain yields from U.S. Treasury bonds. Through its TBILL token, investors can directly participate in a short-term T-Bills investment pool. The TBILL token is supported 1:1 by Treasury securities, USDC, and USD reserves, with its current annualized yield (APY) at approximately 4.23%.
OpenEden provides investors with a decentralized, low-risk asset allocation option. It is worth mentioning that OpenEden is currently the only tokenized U.S. Treasury bond product rated A by Moody's.
Summary
The emergence of RWA breaks down the barriers between traditional finance and the crypto ecosystem, providing crypto asset holders with new investment channels, especially in institution-led fields. At the same time, it significantly enhances asset liquidity and transparency, bringing higher efficiency and innovation space to the traditional financial industry. RWA not only offers crypto users diverse investment choices but also injects momentum into the digital upgrade of the traditional financial system, potentially fostering more innovative projects.
With the arrival of the bull market and the rapid development of this track, RWA is expected to become an important bridge connecting real assets and the crypto ecosystem in the coming years.
