The most critical driving force behind this bull market that started in 2024 is the traditional financial asset management giants led by BlackRock.

In the recently launched altcoin season, the first to lead the rise are the RWA, payment and other tracks that traditional financial giants have focused on. Among them, the tokens Ondo, CRV, ENA and other tokens closely related to traditional asset management giants such as BlackRock have seen very impressive increases. In the sharp decline of the market on the 10th and 11th, these tokens are also relatively resistant to declines or rebound quickly.

Empowering traditional finance, especially projects supported by traditional financial giants, may be one of the most certain directions in this bull market. ChainCatcher briefly sorted out the relevant projects. (Not including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, XRP encrypted ETFs)

BlackRock

BlackRock launched the tokenized fund BUIDL through its compliant tokenization platform Securitize in March this year, currently exceeding $550 million in scale.

Currently, most of BUIDL is still deployed on Ethereum. Last month, BlackRock announced the launch of the BUIDL fund on Aptos, Arbitrum, Avalanche, OP, and Polygon. Recent performances of partners or affiliates surrounding BUIDL have also been relatively bright.

1, Ondo Finance (Ondo)

Ondo saw a surge of 40% last week, breaking through $1.93, reaching a historical high, and has now fallen back to around $1.86. It has increased over 100% in the past month and has risen over 880% in the past year; its market cap is nearly $2.6 billion, with FDV exceeding $18 billion.

Ondo Finance, as a leading project in the RWA track, has closely collaborated with BlackRock, propelling its multiple price increases.

Ondo Finance's two core products are the tokenized U.S. Treasury product OUSG. Previously, the majority of OUSG's portfolio was BlackRock's iShares short-term Treasury ETF (NASDAQ: SHV). In March of this year, after BlackRock announced the launch of its tokenized fund BUIDL, Ondo also reallocated most of OUSG's assets to BUIDL. OUSG currently has a TVL exceeding $180 million and has provided over $25 million in returns to clients since its launch.

In addition to its close ties with BlackRock, Ondo Finance's ecosystem directory announced this year also includes partners such as Morgan Stanley, Ankura Trust, Clear Street, and NAV Consulting.

The core team of Ondo Finance mostly comes from backgrounds in well-known traditional asset management firms. Its co-founder and CEO Nathan Allman previously managed the global crypto digital market in Goldman Sachs' digital asset division. Other core members of Ondo Finance also mainly come from top asset management firms such as Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, and Bridgewater.

In addition to U.S. Treasuries, Ondo Finance will also launch Ondo Global Markets on February 6, 2025, to tokenize stocks and bonds on-chain.

2, Curve (CRV)

As an established DeFi leader, CRV's recent rise is also related to its collaboration with BlackRock. Curve is an important partner for BlackRock's entry into DeFi.

On November 30, Curve announced that it has partnered with blockchain network Elixir to expand access to BlackRock's tokenized money market fund BUIDL to DeFi. Users will soon be able to use BlackRock's BUIDL to mint Elixir's yield stablecoin deUSD. CRV subsequently surged from $0.5 by 60% to $0.8, approaching $1.3 by December 7.

As of the time of writing, it is reported at $1.16. In terms of growth rate, CRV has increased nearly 300% recently; its market capitalization exceeds $1.4 billion, with FDV exceeding $2.5 billion. CRV's historical peak price was $60.5 in August 2020, and its historical lowest price was $0.18, set in August this year.

In addition to its collaboration with BlackRock, Curve's market demand surged after the market rally. Curve also stated that after Trump took office, within two weeks, Curve's revenue doubled from the previous average of $268,000 to $581,000.

Recently, CurveDAO also launched the interest-bearing stablecoin Savings crvUSD (scrvUSD) to expand new use cases.

3, Ethena (ENA)

On November 29, stablecoin issuer Ethena and the tokenization platform Securitize announced an upcoming collaboration to launch the stablecoin USDtb to participate in the $1 billion tokenization competition of the Sky (formerly MakerDAO) lending platform Spark.

The reserves of the USDtb stablecoin will be invested in BlackRock's U.S. institutional digital liquidity fund (BUIDL), making USDtb the only stablecoin supported by BUIDL.

As a result of this news, ENA continuously rose from around $0.7. Last week, it peaked above $1.14 and has now fallen back to $1.1, with a nearly 80% increase in the past month, and a market cap exceeding $3.2 billion, with FDV exceeding $16.5 billion.

Ethena is also a project in which Franklin Templeton participated in the investment.

4, Velo (VELO)

Velo is a blockchain-based global settlement network that provides fast, secure, and low-cost cross-border payments for individuals and businesses. DWFLabs made a strategic investment of $10 million in it last year.

In September of this year, Velo announced that it had integrated BlackRock's tokenized BUIDL fund into its USDV stablecoin, providing seamless trading and earning opportunities for over 1 million users in Southeast Asia.

VELO surged 50% last week, breaking through $0.03, and has now fallen back to around $0.026, having increased over 84% in the past month; its market capitalization is nearly $200 million, with FDV close to $800 million.

Fidelity

5, Chainlink (LINK)

Oracle networks are also essential for financial institutions to tokenize assets, and Chainlink can help institutions link on-chain and off-chain data, unlocking some DeFi use cases.

This year, Chainlink has collaborated with multiple traditional asset management and leading cryptocurrency firms, Web2 giants, and Trump's cryptocurrency projects.

Chainlink partnered with Fidelity International and Sygnum to put Fidelity's $6.9 billion institutional liquidity fund's net asset value (NAV) data on-chain in real-time. Chainlink also collaborated with Swiss asset management giant UBS and SWIFT to complete a pilot project that provides settlement for tokenized fund subscription and redemption operations through the SWIFT network.

21Shares integrated Chainlink's proof of reserve system to provide transparency for its Ethereum ETF; Sony's L2 network Soneium also chose Chainlink as a partner.

It is worth mentioning that Trump's family cryptocurrency project World Liberty recently announced it will adopt Chainlink's on-chain data and cross-chain connectivity standards. In the past 9 hours, World Liberty has also purchased over 40,000 LINK.

Last week, LINK's price broke through $20 and peaked above $27. After a brief decline, it rose again today, breaking through $29, increasing nearly 30% in 24 hours. LINK has also risen nearly 100% over the past month. The last time LINK was above $20 was in January 2020. LINK's historical peak price was $52.88, set in May 2021.

As of the time of writing, LINK's market capitalization exceeds $18 billion, with FDV exceeding $28.9 billion.

Morgan

6, Avalanche (Avax)

The Avalanche token Avax is also among the recently initiated altcoin season and is one of the better-performing tokens among established public chains. Avax peaked above $55 last week and has now fallen back to around $50, having risen over 37% in the past month. Currently, Avax's market capitalization exceeds $20.5 billion, with FDV close to $36 billion.

From the news perspective, the recent rise of Avax may be related to Avalanche's layout and growth in RWA, in addition to the 'hype' implied by Ava Labs founder indicating ongoing dialogue with the new U.S. government for collaboration.

Avalanche has a significant advantage in developing RWA, allowing developers or enterprises to create their own independent subnets. Some RWA projects can therefore create dedicated subnets according to legal requirements in different countries or regions, flexibly meeting collaboration requirements.

JPMorgan has a close collaboration with Avalanche; its digital asset platform Onyx utilizes Avalanche to create tokenized funds.

In addition, other asset management giants, banks, payment giants, government agencies, and stablecoin giants have adopted Avalanche.

In November, BlackRock announced Avalanche as one of the multiple public chains it is expanding into. The asset tokenization platform Hadron, announced by Tether, also includes Avalanche among its first public chains.

In October, the Latin American bank Littio abandoned Ethereum in favor of using Avalanche.

In August, Franklin Templeton expanded its tokenized money market fund (FOBXX) to the Avalanche network, which had previously traded on Stellar, Polygon, and Arbitrum.

Earlier this year, Citibank collaborated with WisdomTree and Wellington Management to conduct a private equity fund tokenization proof-of-concept trial on the Avalanche subnet Spruce. The California Department of Motor Vehicles also digitized ownership certificates for 42 million vehicles in the state on Avalanche.

Franklin Templeton

Franklin Templeton's tokenized fund FOBXX currently exceeds $440 million in scale, initially issued on the Stellar blockchain and later expanded to Arbitrum, Polygon, Avalanche, Aptos, Ethereum, and Base.

Franklin Templeton has invested in around 30 cryptocurrency projects, among which Aptos (APT), Ethena (ENA), Sui (SUI), Puffer Finance (PUFFER), SHRAPNEL (SHRAP), LayerZero (ZRO), Spectral (SPEC), and Arcade (ARC) have 8 with issued tokens.

Puffer Finance, Ethena, and SHRAPNEL are projects invested in over the past year. PUFFER and ENA are the two projects with the most impressive token growth this year. Ethena has already been mentioned in partnership with BlackRock's tokenized fund regarding stablecoins, so no further elaboration is needed.

7, Stellar (XLM)

Stellar is another payment network founded by Jed McCaleb, co-founder of Ripple. More than half of Franklin Templeton's tokenized fund FOBXX's TVL is on Stellar.

Stellar has also collaborated with WisdomTree, with digital funds for short-term Treasury also issued on Stellar. WisdomTree launched the WisdomTree Prime app and utilized the Stellar network to launch in 41 states.

XLM has seen multiple price increases over the past month, peaking above $0.6, and has now fallen back to around $0.44, with an increase of over 260% in the past month. Its market cap exceeds $13.3 billion, with FDV exceeding $22.1 billion.

8, Sui (SUI)

Franklin Templeton, in addition to investing in Sui, announced a strategic partnership with Sui in November to focus on supporting Sui ecosystem builders and leveraging Sui blockchain protocol to deploy new technologies.

Sui is currently reported at $4.81, having risen over 53% in the past month, with a market cap exceeding $14.1 billion and FDV exceeding $48.1 billion.

9, Aptos (APT)

In addition to investments, Franklin Templeton's tokenized fund FOBXX has now expanded to Aptos.

APT is currently reported at $13.87, with little growth over the past month, peaking above $15, and a market cap exceeding $7.4 billion, with FDV reaching $15.6 billion.

10, Puffer Finance (PUFFER)

Puffer Finance is a liquidity staking protocol based on EigenLayer. In April of this year, Franklin Templeton and Avon Ventures, a venture capital fund associated with Fidelity Investments' parent company, participated in Puffer Finance's $18 million investment.

Last week, PUFFER also surged significantly, nearing $1, and has now fallen back to $0.82, having increased nearly 130%. Its current market cap is over $84 million, with FDV exceeding $820 million.

11, LayerZero (ZRO)

LayerZero, as one of the three cross-chain giants, has also seen good momentum recently. Last week, LayerZero's token ZRO set a historical high, breaking above $7.4, before currently falling back to $6.98. It has increased over 77%. ZRO's market cap is $760 million, with FDV reaching $6.9 billion.

Recently worth noting, LayerZero (ZRO) will hold a public referendum on December 19 to activate fee conversion.

The LayerZero protocol may charge fees equivalent to the total cost of validating and executing cross-chain messages. If the governance fee switch is activated, the public finance contract will charge fees on the local chain and burn these fees.

12, SHRAPNEL (SHRAP)

SHRAPNEL is a AAA-level FPS game, with notable institutions such as Polychain, IOSG Ventures, Dragonfly, DeFiance Capital, Mechanism Capital, Spartan Group, and others on the investment team.

However, the Shrapnel team experienced internal conflict at the end of last year, with the Shrapnel game studio Neon Machine mentioning a lawsuit to several investors, claiming attempts to seize control of the company and its treasury.

SHRAP is currently reported at $0.04, with a market cap exceeding $33 million and FDV exceeding $124 million.

13, Spectral (SPEC)

Spectral was originally a machine intelligence network on the Base chain and is now positioned as a platform to help users achieve AI programming for smart contracts.

In March of this year, Spectral launched the AI application Syntax, which helps anyone start smart contracts on Ethereum and dozens of other blockchains, allowing users to compile, debug, and deploy AI-generated Solidity code.

In addition to Franklin Templeton's investment, early investors in Spectral include Polychain Capital, Galaxy Digital, Samsung, Circle Ventures, and Jump Capital.

Recently, the AI sector has been leading the gains; SPEC recently broke through the historical high of $18 and has currently fallen back to $13; its market cap exceeds $183 million, with FDV exceeding $1.3 billion.

14, Arcade (ARC)

Arcade is a GameFi platform that allows the community to earn meaningful rewards from various Play-and-Earn metaverse games without directly playing the games or owning in-game NFTs. Franklin Templeton invested in Arcade in 2021, with notable early investors including Pantera Capital, Crypto.com Capital, Solana Ventures, Shima Capital, GSR, LD Capital, and KuCoin Labs.

Earlier this year, Crypto.com Capital, Solana Ventures, Shima Capital, GSR, and KuCoin Labs reinvested in Arcade.

ARC is currently reported at $0.038, with a market cap of less than $1 million and FDV of over $30 million.

VanEck

In addition to its connection with the chubby penguin Pudgy Penguins, in October this year, VanEck announced the launch of a $30 million venture fund to support the development of the crypto and AI industries.

Previously, investments were made in at least 7 cryptocurrency projects, among which GEODNET (GEOD), Parallel (PRIME), and 1inch (1INCH) have already issued tokens.

15, Pudgy Penguins (PENGU)

Last week, the chubby penguin Pudgy Penguins, which plans to issue tokens and has airdrop expectations in 2024, saw its floor price surge beyond 27 ETH, and Pudgy Penguins has some connections with VanEck.

In June this year, asset management firm VanEck changed its social media avatar on platform X to the chubby penguin Pudgy Penguins, accompanied by the caption: 'The boss thinks this is too cute, it must be a pfp.' Pudgy Penguins were also featured in VanEck's promotional video for its ETH ETF.

However, recently, Pudgy Penguins' token plan was launched on Solana.

16, Parallel (PRIME)

Parallel is a sci-fi themed trading card game (TCG), with team members including experienced developers from AAA games like Assassin's Creed and Valorant, as well as the co-founder of YouTube, Chad Hurley.

In addition to VanEck, Paradigm, Solana Ventures, Base, Amber Group, Spartan Group, and others participated in the investment. The first financing in 2021 received a $50 million investment from Paradigm, with a valuation reaching $500 million.

This year, Parallel also launched the AI survival simulation game Colony on Solana and announced the AI crypto game's lunar mission.

PRIME is currently reported at $15.78, having increased over 53% in just one month, with a market cap exceeding $566 million and FDV exceeding $1.7 billion.

17, GEODNET (GEOD)

GEODNET is a DEPIN project that uses a new type of rooftop space weather station to collect dense real-time geospatial data from the Earth and its atmosphere. In addition to VanEck, Animoca Brands, Pantera Capital, CoinFund, and IoTeX are also investors. Animoca Brands has also established a strategic partnership with GEODNET.

GEOD is currently reported at $0.24, with no significant increase recently, and its market cap exceeds $48 million, with FDV exceeding $240 million.

18, 1inch (1INCH)

The established DEX aggregator 1inch is also the second-largest aggregator by market share. 1INCH broke through $0.6 last week and has now fallen back to $0.51, having increased over 63% in the past month; its market capitalization exceeds $720 million, with FDV exceeding $777 million.

Last week, after the price increase, the 1inch team sold 1INCH continuously from the 5th to the 7th for three days, exchanging a total of 15,698,000 1INCH for 8.38 million USDC, with an average selling price of $0.533.

WisdomTree

In addition to applying for an XRP ETF, WisdomTree has also been actively working on tokenized funds and other RWA products recently.

WisdomTree recently announced that platform users can directly spend funds from its WisdomTree government money market digital fund (WTGXX) using their Visa debit cards. Currently, the fund manages approximately $12 million in assets.

Moreover, WisdomTree has launched an RWA platform that allows users to access its regulated fund tokens through any wallet or blockchain network and plans to eventually expand access to these assets.

WisdomTree has also obtained a license from NYDFS and will launch the crypto application WisdomTree Prime.

WisdomTree's digital fund for short-term Treasury launched in 2022 was also first deployed on Ethereum and Stellar. WisdomTree has also conducted private equity fund tokenization proof-of-concept trials on the Avalanche subnet Spruce.

Goldman Sachs

Goldman Sachs' plans in the crypto field for 2025 are also worth noting.

Recently, there were market reports claiming that Goldman Sachs' CEO stated that if regulatory authorities allow, it would 'evaluate' participation in the Bitcoin or Ethereum markets. Goldman Sachs' attention to cryptocurrencies beyond Bitcoin may also be an important shift.

Previously, Goldman Sachs' digital asset head mentioned mid-year plans to launch 3 tokenized projects by the end of the year, including its first U.S. project. Goldman Sachs is expanding its cryptocurrency services, focusing on the tokenization sector, issuing 'real-world assets' like money market funds and real estate through public or private blockchains.

Currently, Goldman Sachs has not disclosed more project details and partners for tokenized funds, which can be continuously monitored.

Goldman Sachs has previously invested in asset management or infrastructure projects such as Circle, BitGO, Blockdaemon, Certik, etc.