According to Blockworks, the term 'RWA' or Real-World Assets in the DeFi context is often seen as confusing and controversial. In finance and banking, 'RWA' usually refers to 'Risk-Weighted Assets', which are used to determine capital requirements under regulatory frameworks. However, in DeFi, the term can cover a broad range of asset types, including real estate, commodities, and bonds. Despite the confusion, it's a part of the current crypto cycle narrative that is here to stay.
To simplify access to this category, Index Coop has introduced a Real World Asset Index Token to its expanding suite of DeFi-native products. This product was developed in collaboration with Fortunafi, a leading methodologist in the DeFi space. The initial components of the index are expected to be Maker (MKR), Ondo Finance (ONDO), Ethena (ENA), Centrifuge (CFG), Canto (CANTO), and Maple Finance (MPL). These projects provide a variety of RWA-linked investments, from real estate tokenization to US Treasurys to the tokenized futures basis trade.
Like the High-Yield ETH index before it, Index Coop is using Product Revenue Tokens (PRTs) to attract early investors. PRTs give holders a share of the revenue generated by the RWA Index and are distributed through a presale over the next 30 days. The presale serves as 'a demand signal' and the RWA index will only launch if the presale is successful.
Crews Enochs, ecosystem growth lead, stated that Index Coop should focus on more than just TVL. With the new iteration, Index Coop is 'trying to incentivize other behaviors which add further value to the product,' such as market liquidity, securing oracle services and integrations with other DeFi dapps such as borrowing and lending markets. Initially, both RWA and hyETH are on Ethereum mainnet only, but they are eventually expected to branch out to layer-2s, with hyETH access to be provided by Chainlink’s CCIP-based Transporter bridge.