Author: Wenser, Odaily Planet Daily
Influenced by Trump's impending inauguration and a series of recent favorable policies in the US, the cryptocurrency market has once again welcomed a trading peak, with BTC prices briefly breaking $107,000. Numerous investment institutions are pouring significant funds into BTC ETF, ETH ETF, and other funds while also seeking new value growth points.
At the same time, as Binance founder CZ previously predicted, the altcoin season has arrived, with strong growth in L1 public chain tokens besides traditional tokens and meme coins, particularly with SUI continuously breaking new highs. The Sui ecosystem not only has a solid foundation in the DeFi sector but also develops the meme coin sector impressively. In addition, unlike other L1 public chains limited to the crypto market, recent large moves in its RWA sector have brought new possibilities for attracting external liquidity and attention.
On December 13, Sui officially announced a partnership with Ant Group and its Web3 technology brand ZAN, with both parties bringing ESG-related RWA (real-world assets) into the Sui ecosystem. One party is a rising public chain, while the other is a digital asset pioneer. It seems that both sides will usher in an "RWA spring" for physical assets, bringing more possibilities to the crypto market. Odaily Planet Daily will analyze this in detail in this article.
The best reasons for choosing RWA: an emerging track with a future scale of up to $30 trillion
The main reason Sui and Ant Group chose the RWA sector as a cooperation battleground is that it sits at the intersection of TradFi and DeFi, representing a huge potential market. According to information on RWA.xyz’s official website, the current on-chain RWA asset size exceeds $14 billion, with stablecoin assets reaching $201.77 billion. There are as many as 116 asset issuers, but there remains over 100 times the market space compared to future prospects.
Global consulting firm McKinsey & Company predicts that by 2030, the market for tokenized assets (RWA) could reach $40 trillion, with many projects moving from pilot programs to large-scale deployment. Colin Butler, head of global institutional capital at Polygon, previously stated that RWA represents a global market opportunity of $30 trillion. High-net-worth individuals and private equity funds will drive the adoption of this sector, as tokenization brings liquidity and accessibility to historically illiquid asset classes. A previous research report from Tren Finance indicated that if the RWA industry can reach an expected median of about $10 trillion, its value could grow more than 54 times compared to now.
RWA.xyz website information
According to a previous report released by asset management giant Bitwise (Top 10 Predictions for the Crypto Market in 2025), by 2025, as Wall Street institutions accelerate their entry, the RWA market size is expected to reach $50 billion and may grow exponentially from there. Venture capital firm ParaFi predicts that by 2030, the tokenized RWA market size could grow to $2 trillion, while the Global Financial Markets Association predicts it could reach $16 trillion. Such a hot market expectation has naturally attracted a multitude of world-class giant institutions.
Goldman Sachs' digital asset platform has officially launched and helped the European Investment Bank issue €100 million in two-year digital bonds. In addition, Goldman Sachs has also collaborated with traditional financial institutions to launch related businesses and plans to build a private chain for asset tokenization.
Siemens Group previously issued €60 million in on-chain digital bonds, marking the "first attempt in the RWA field."
Financial giants like HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, and Citigroup are also exploring the tokenization of government bonds to improve financial efficiency and settlement speed.
The current size of the US government bond RWA market is approximately $3 billion, having grown nearly 30 times from $100 million at the beginning of 2023. Among them, the USYC launched in collaboration with Hashnote and cryptocurrency custodian Copper has reached $880 million; BlackRock's BUIDL has reached $560 million.
US Treasury RWA market information
It is understood that the cooperation between Ant Group and Sui is mainly aimed at promoting the tokenization of ESG-related RWA, expanding its reach to global investors through RWA, with the underlying assets being new energy assets from a Chinese solar materials manufacturer.
As a blockchain ecosystem that has seen its TVL grow over 14 times to $14 billion this year and has the support of major US asset management giants like Grayscale and VanEck, Sui views the RWA market as the "next growth point." Jameel Khalfan, the ecosystem development director of the Sui Foundation, stated: "Tokenization of the ESG market is a significant step forward for real-world assets. Through this cooperation, investors will be able to enter a whole new market, and all of this will happen on the platform best suited for it, namely Sui."
It is evident that RWA has become a strategic track highly valued by blockchain networks and digital asset institutions, with significant industry value.
Dual support for RWA development: intrinsic advantages and market demand
Specifically, the strategic significance of the RWA track is reflected in the following three aspects:
Asset transparency and transaction efficiency: By tokenizing physical assets and bringing them onto the blockchain network, investors can deeply participate in market transactions by leveraging the transparency of on-chain data and the high efficiency of on-chain operations.
Enhanced liquidity of physical assets: Based on increased transparency and enhanced security, RWA assets can achieve partial ownership splits, significantly enhancing the digital liquidity of physical assets.
Acting as a bridge between traditional markets and the crypto market: By introducing low-risk, high-return tokenized products, more physical assets and investors will inject a new wave of liquidity into both traditional and crypto markets, revitalizing physical assets in the real world while bringing more quality targets and liquidity to the crypto market.
RWA can represent many different types of traditional assets, including tangible and intangible assets. The RWA in overseas markets mainly comprises bonds and gold.
Why did Sui, as a leading blockchain network in the crypto market, choose China’s new energy assets?
Industry experts point out that "this reflects, to some extent, the 'industrial characteristics of China.'" According to data from the Forward Industry Research Institute, by 2023, China's new energy industry has accumulated an installed capacity of 1.57 billion kilowatts, with a five-year compound growth rate of 15.31%. From solar power generation to charging piles and new energy vehicle products, new energy has become China's "new label." "(These new energy assets) have high potential and high growth potential once converted into RWA," the aforementioned person stated.
It can be said that the tokenization of physical assets into RWA will genuinely promote the deep integration of Web3 technology and digital assets, thereby achieving the digital re-development of real assets.
Looking ahead: The RWA market is ushering in new possibilities for diversified development routes
In the past, the development of the RWA track mainly revolved around fixed assets like US Treasuries, making the variety of assets and technological routes relatively singular. Thanks to Ant Group and its Web3 technology brand ZAN's deep cooperation with Sui, both parties will jointly promote the tokenization of RWA assets on a larger scale, injecting new vitality into traditional and crypto markets from aspects like technical support, ecosystem development, and capital introduction.
"By tokenizing traditional assets from low liquidity environments to high liquidity markets," BiFinance Research Institute mentioned in a recent report, "this cooperation will bring quality assets in the ESG field to the blockchain, empower the real industry, and is expected to become a new driving force for the bull market."
Previously, Ant Group launched the largest new energy on-chain asset platform in the country, consisting of the "Asset Chain," "Transaction Chain," and "Ant Chain Trusted Cross-Chain Bridge," with over 12 million devices cumulatively on-chain; the overseas market-oriented Web3 product ZAN has also been launched. The total market value of the Sui blockchain has reached $13 billion, with total locked value (TVL) surpassing $18.9 billion. Following the announcement of the cooperation, Sui's price surged 10% within 24 hours, hitting a historic high.
In the future, with the support of Sui's ecosystem, the RWA market landscape of both parties is expected to welcome a new round of expansion. It is foreseeable that the spring of the RWA market is about to arrive.
