Source: OKX

RWA (Real World Assets) is becoming the "new darling" of global capital.

In simple terms, RWA is about moving real-world assets that are valuable and have ownership rights—such as real estate, bonds, stocks, and other traditional financial assets, as well as assets that are not commonly traded directly such as art, private loans, and carbon credits—onto the blockchain, transforming them into tradable, programmable crypto assets. This way, no matter where you are, you can trade these assets on-chain around the clock and at a low cost.

The OKX Research Institute believes that RWA is not a short-lived crypto hype but a crucial bridge for the integration of Web3 with the trillion-dollar traditional financial market. From asset securitization in the 1970s to today's RWA, the core focus has been on enhancing asset liquidity, reducing transaction costs, and expanding user base. This report aims to delve into the RWA track landscape and explore this future possibility.

1. RWA Market Overview: Development History, Scale, and Institutional Drivers

Using the example of the rental scenario, RWA is reshaping the traditional model: no need for intermediaries, no need to pay multiple months of rent upfront, simply "rent for one month" on a mobile app to automatically deduct payment for check-in; "one-click settlement" for instant deposit refund upon check-out; temporary relocation can transfer the remaining lease period on-chain, with the whole process being transparent and tamper-proof. Through RWA, landlords can confirm property rights on-chain, have rent automatically distributed by smart contracts, and even securitize "future lease periods" or "rental income rights" in advance. RWA transforms real estate into a flexible and transferable crypto asset, enhancing efficiency.

RWA is the inevitable outcome of making traditional financial assets machine-readable on the blockchain, not the creation of new assets, but the establishment of a brand-new, efficient operating environment for old assets.

The development of RWA has roughly gone through three stages: the period from 2009 to 2018 was the starting phase, with the emergence of Bitcoin and Ethereum marking the beginning of asset tokenization and early exploration of STOs; from 2019 to 2022, it entered the application exploration stage, with RWA introduced into DeFi as collateral, real estate, art, and other assets starting on-chain trials, but still facing liquidity and compliance challenges; since 2023, as investors pursue stable returns and institutions actively issue tokenized products, the RWA market has entered a rapid development period, with continuous expansion in scale, heading towards a trillion-dollar new financial market.

Especially from a macro perspective, the RWA ratio first improves payment and collateral efficiency, then expands credit, ultimately supporting AI wallet transactions, or will reshape the capital market in the next five to ten years. The RWA market has shown exponential growth since its $50 million scale in 2019, with a particularly significant growth rate in 2024-2025. As of November 3, 2025, the total on-chain RWA amount (excluding stablecoins) has reached $35 billion, representing a growth of over 150% from the same period last year; the total stablecoin market cap has exceeded $2,950 billion, with over 199 million holders, reflecting that the tokenization narrative is moving from concept to large-scale application.

According to DeFiLlama data, the global Total Value Locked (TVL) of RWA has reached $18.117 billion, continuing its growth trend. (Note: The total on-chain RWA amount is the total value of all on-chain issued related tokens; whereas TVL specifically refers to the value of RWA held in DeFi protocols as collateral or interest-generating assets. A large part of RWA (such as BlackRock's BUIDL) is held directly by users in wallets and not deposited in DeFi protocols, so the TVL will be much less than the total issuance.)

This growth is driven by institutional entry, regulatory clarity, and technological maturity resonance: the uncertain global interest rate environment has made tokenized U.S. Treasury bonds (yielding about 4%) the preferred low-risk asset for DeFi users and institutions; regulatory frameworks such as the EU's MiCA provide a legal blueprint; asset management giants such as BlackRock and Franklin Templeton issuing products have validated the compliance and feasibility of RWA. At the same time, DeFi protocols introduce RWA as collateral and yield benchmarks to mitigate volatility, with MakerDAO accepting RWA collateral to mint stablecoin liquidity, forming a synergy between on-chain and off-chain funds.

II. RWA Track Insight: User Profile, Structure, Six Major Assets

According to RWA.xyz data, as of November 3, 2025, RWA asset holders have exceeded 520,000 people. Institutional investors dominate the market (approximately 50-60%), participating through platforms such as BlackRock BUIDL and JPMorgan TCN; qualified/high-net-worth individuals account for 10-20%, mainly through platforms like Ondo and Paxos; retail investor participation is still relatively low, but they are gradually entering through new models such as fractional ownership.

The current RWA market appears to be prosperous, but institutional capital mainly pursues a few safe assets, such as U.S. Treasury bonds and top-tier private credit, turning it into a highly competitive environment. The real growth lies in whether non-liquid long-tail assets (such as SME invoices, carbon credits, consumer credit) can be scaled on-chain. However, there is a fundamental conflict between DeFi's composability and traditional finance's risk isolation. Without accompanying disclosure and constraint tools, RWA will forever be just an on-chain mirror of traditional finance rather than a more efficient capital market.

The on-chain RWA asset structure reflects market preferences: Private Credit and US Treasuries are core assets, with the former dominating half of the market share due to high yields, and the latter serving as an "entry-level" product for institutional capital. Commodities and institutional alternative funds have approximately $30 billion and $20 billion, respectively. Non-US Government Debt ($10 billion), Public Equity ($6.9 billion), and Private Equity ($5.8 billion) make up the long-tail assets with greater growth potential. Looking ahead, the asset tokenization space far exceeds the current size. BCG predicts that by 2030, the global asset tokenization business opportunity could expand to $16.1 trillion, representing about 10% of global GDP.

It is worth noting that not all assets are suitable for tokenization. The true growth opportunities often come from assets with modest returns but stable cash flows, such as short-term government bonds, HELOC, and consumer credit. These assets, which are predictable and cash-flow-positive, are ideal targets for on-chain bundling. Assets with extremely poor liquidity (such as certain real estate properties), even if tokenized, still struggle with liquidity challenges.

A common yet misleading understanding is that "tokenization can create liquidity." The reality is that tokenization cannot generate liquidity; it can only expose and amplify the inherent liquidity characteristics of assets. For highly liquid assets (such as US Treasuries and blue-chip stocks), tokenization can optimize and expand liquidity, making it 24/7, global, and programmable, enhancing an already liquid environment. For low-liquidity assets (such as individual real estate properties or specific private equity holdings), tokenization only changes the form of ownership registration without addressing fundamental issues: information asymmetry, valuation challenges, complex legal transfers, and shallow market depth. Even with on-chain real estate NFTs, liquidity remains zero without buyers.

The core logic is that liquidity comes from a robust market maker network, a clear price discovery mechanism, and market confidence, rather than the token standard itself. Blockchain addresses settlement and custody efficiency, not asset attractiveness. The market insight provided is that successful RWA projects (such as tokenizing US Treasuries) do not create new assets but offer a better channel for inherently high-demand, low-transaction efficiency cash cow assets. Furthermore, in the currently slow-growing RWA sectors (like real estate), the issue is not technology but the assets' non-standard and low-frequency trading attributes. The primary value of tokenization lies in transparency and process automation, with liquidity enhancement as a secondary possibility.

There is a significant difference in the scale of RWAs on different public blockchains, with RWA assets primarily concentrated on the Ethereum network, except for private and permissioned blockchains like Canton developed by Digital Asset. Additionally, networks such as Polygon, Solana, and Arbitrum also have varying scales of deployment.

From a yield-generating asset or investment potential perspective, the core focus remains on categories such as Private Credit, US Treasuries, and Commodities. Although they have a smaller scale, they are the true "yield-driven" RWAs. Therefore, when understanding the RWA market, it is essential to differentiate between perspectives dominated by total market value and those dominated by yield-generating assets.

(1) Private Credit: High-Yield RWA Core Asset

Private credit, a $1.6 trillion asset class in traditional finance, is the largest asset category in current non-stablecoin RWAs. Through blockchain smart contracts, non-public transaction debt instruments such as corporate loans, invoice financing, and real estate mortgage loans are packaged into tradable tokens.

The growth of private credit comes from its high yield and relative stability, providing DeFi users with 5%-15% annualized returns, independent of crypto market volatility. Tokenization fragments illiquid assets, attracting global crypto capital, enhancing liquidity, and empowering traditional lenders. Furthermore, it does not redefine credit but offers a more efficient receipt mechanism. Once these assets are on-chain, they can be plugged into the lending market, used as collateral, or packaged into asset-backed securities like other crypto assets.

As of November 7, 2025, the active loan size of private credit in the RWA space is approximately $18.66 billion, with an average annualized interest rate of 9.79% and a total of 2,710 loans. The Figure platform occupies about 92% of the market share, with a total loan amount of $17.2 billion; Centrifuge, through a multi-chain architecture interoperable with DeFi protocols, has seen its TVL increase from $350 million to over $1.3 billion, with a historical annualized yield of 8%-15%.

The on-chain prosperity of private credit replicates the traditional credit cycle: starting from high-quality credit and then expanding to low-quality collateral. Some yield-generating stablecoins' collapses may be a signal of entering the "junk debt" phase—these products essentially lend user funds to opaque on-chain/off-chain hedge funds, with high yields accompanied by significant counterparty risks. The Stream Finance incident illustrates that the true threat in a modular lending market is liquidity freeze: even if the protocol's solvency is intact, a collapse of low-quality assets can trigger a run, draining the entire shared liquidity layer and causing temporary paralysis for users. This is not just a technical risk but also a collapse of reputation and trust.

Figure is taking a highly compliant route in the U.S. It addresses pain points in traditional lending, such as intermediaries, slow approvals, and poor asset liquidity. The platform tokenizes the entire process of home equity lines of credit (HELOC) using its self-developed Provenance blockchain, enabling assets to settle and be custodied on-chain rapidly. In other words, from application to funding, the borrower's experience is extremely fast—you can get pre-approved in 5 minutes and funded in 5 days. This high-efficiency model not only meets borrowers' needs but also makes institutional investors more willing to participate. With a cumulative total of over $16 billion in home equity loans and over 50% of the active market share, Figure almost dominates the HELOC market, and it successfully listed on the NASDAQ in September 2025.

Centrifuge plays a completely different game, leaning towards DeFi infrastructure with a focus on cross-chain interoperability. It addresses the challenge of onboarding traditional illiquid assets (such as corporate invoices and accounts receivable) onto the blockchain. Its core product, Tinlake, can tokenize assets into tokens of different risk levels (Senior/Junior) and offers DeFi users approximately 8%–15% annualized yield. Centrifuge's key strength lies in its deep integration with the DeFi ecosystem—platforms like Aave and MakerDAO can directly use its assets as collateral. Through this approach, the platform's Total Value Locked (TVL) has surpassed $1 billion, providing a streamlined on-chain financing channel for small and medium enterprises and asset originators.

(2) U.S. Treasury Bonds: Institutional Capital's "Entry-level" RWA

As of the end of October 2025, the total size of U.S. Treasury Bonds has exceeded $38 trillion. The tokenization of Treasury Bonds originated during the 2020-2022 DeFi bear market when market returns were generally low, leading users to seek more stable and rewarding assets. U.S. Treasury Bonds precisely catered to this demand: government-backed, nearly zero risk, with an annualized yield of 4%-5%, significantly higher than bank deposits (1%-2%) and some DeFi lending products. However, the challenges were evident—lack of liquidity (trading through brokers or brokerage accounts), high entry barriers (KYC required), and geographical restrictions (difficult for non-U.S. users to invest directly). By 2023, the Fed's rate hikes pushed the Treasury Bond yield peak above 5%, coupled with the stablecoin market surge, driving the demand for Treasury Bond tokenization.

Early projects like Ondo Finance's OUSG (in 2023) and Franklin Templeton's FOBXX were pioneers. By 2024, BlackRock officially joined in, propelling the market size through the BUIDL fund from $85 million in 2020 to $4-5 billion in Q1 2025, surpassing $8 billion in total. In terms of yield, BlackRock's BUIDL offers a 4%-5% APY, Ondo's USDY even exceeds 5%, and they can further amplify returns by participating in "sustainable yield farming" in the DeFi scene.

Technically, Treasury Bond tokenization relies on ERC-20/ERC-721 for on-chain ownership transfer; BUIDL and USDY essentially package programmability onto extremely conservative debt instruments. They do not redefine Treasury Bonds but provide an on-chain interface. Once these assets are on-chain, they can be used as DeFi collateral, participate in yield farming, and even facilitate cross-chain circulation. This Wrap as a Service model is crucial for transitioning from RWA pilots to scale. On the regulatory front, approval from the EU's MiCA and the U.S. SEC has accelerated adoption.

In terms of stability, U.S. Treasury bonds have almost zero default risk (AAA rating), are inflation-resistant, and withstand market volatility. On-chain tokenization can also enhance transparency and security through smart contracts and auditing. Even better, their liquidity and accessibility have significantly improved—24/7 trading, minimum $1 participation, and global user access. In DeFi, they can also be used as collateral to borrow USDC. With continued institutional adoption, robust KYC support, and product diversification (offering both short-term and long-term Treasury bonds), the compliance and universality of tokenized bonds are becoming stronger.

As of November 7, 2025, the total locked value in the tokenized U.S. Treasury bond market is approximately $8.7 billion, with over 58,000 holders. The 7-day average annual percentage yield (APY) is 3.77%, showing a slight decrease from the previous period, reflecting changes in the interest rate environment. In terms of on-chain distribution, Ethereum accounts for over $4.3 billion, and the trend of multi-chain usage is evident, such as VanEck's VBILL fund expanding to multiple ecosystems.

The RWA tokenized U.S. Treasury bond market is currently dominated by institutions such as BlackRock's BUIDL, Circle's USYC, and Ondo Finance. In 2025, as interest rates return to normal levels and stablecoin regulations become clearer, this space is rapidly heating up. The core goal is straightforward—to bring U.S. Treasury bonds onto the blockchain, allowing users to earn stable and on-demand returns. These products strictly differentiate between U.S. accredited investors and global non-U.S. investors, with offerings ranging from retail (such as USDY/USYC) to high net worth (such as OUSG/BUIDL). Users can diversify their investments reasonably based on factors like geographic location, risk tolerance, returns, and fees.

BlackRock's BUIDL is the leading institutional player in U.S. bond tokenization. It addresses the issues of high traditional investment thresholds and poor liquidity. With the backing of BlackRock's brand and Securitize's compliance pathway, BUIDL has a market value of approximately $2.8 billion, capturing about a third of the market. The barrier to entry is high (at least $5 million) and is only open to U.S. accredited institutions. The returns are based on the SOFR rate (simply put, the average overnight lending rate collateralized by U.S. Treasury bonds) minus a management fee, yielding around 3.85% APY. Additionally, on-chain transparent audits make it the highest compliance benchmark for the integration of traditional finance and Web3.

Circle's USYC primarily serves non-U.S. users and accredited institutions, solving their inconvenience in purchasing U.S. bonds, with a current size of about $990 million. It is deeply integrated with USDC, supported by Bermuda regulations, with a 3.53% APY and daily automatically updated returns based on net asset value, eliminating the need for manual claiming. The fund does not charge a management fee, only a 10% performance fee, placing it at a moderately high level. USYC supports T+0 real-time redemption, multi-chain circulation, has a moderate entry threshold ($100,000 with KYC/AML verification), and through partnerships with traditional financial institutions like DBS Bank, is accelerating its global presence.

Ondo Finance is taking a mass adoption approach, covering different user groups through its OUSG and USDY products, addressing the high KYC threshold and liquidity issues in US Treasury bond investment. OUSG (approximately $7.83 billion) is aimed at US accredited institutions, investing in short-term Treasury bond ETFs, requiring strict verification (net assets ≥ $5 million, minimum investment of 10,000 USDC); USDY (approximately $6.9 billion, with over 16,000 holders) targets global non-US investors, requiring no strict verification, simply depositing USDC to earn yields, greatly simplifying retail participation. Its advantages include low management fees (0.15%), multi-chain compatibility (Ethereum, Solana), usability in DeFi collateral, converting US Treasury bond yields (approximately 3.7% APY) into "live money." Strategically, Ondo is building a full-stack RWA infrastructure through acquisitions like Strangelove, providing asset issuance, secondary market, custody, and compliance tools, preparing for institutional-grade RWA solutions.

The success of tokenized government bonds lies not in disrupting government bonds themselves but in their role as a compliant, low-risk "Trojan Horse," bringing institutional capital and trust onto the blockchain. BUIDL and USDY are fundamentally programmable wrappers for conservative debt instruments, making ancient financial products portable, composable, and online 24/7. This is the true PMF (Product-Market Fit) of the first phase of RWA: serving machines rather than humans, providing a risk-free yield curve for on-chain finance, and paving the way for more complex RWA financial engineering. In the next phase, whoever can build a killer application for an on-chain money market fund based on this will capture significant value.

（Three）Commodities: Gold Tokenization Leads Growth

In the RWA field, commodities refer to traditional commodities such as oil, gold, silver, agricultural products, etc., being tokenized on the blockchain, giving them digital ownership and enabling on-chain trading.

As of November 10, in the current RWA field, commodity tokenization has shown significant growth, with the total size gradually increasing from less than $10 early on to about $3.5 billion, monthly trading volume reaching $82.2 billion, 31,326 active addresses per month, and 164,000 holders. In particular, gold-tokenized assets have performed well, and commodity tokenized assets such as oil and soybeans have recently shown an accelerating upward trend, with the overall market activity and scale rapidly expanding.

As of November 10, 2025, the spot price of gold has risen to about $4,075 per ounce, a 55.3% year-to-date increase, reaching a historic high. The price increase is mainly driven by geopolitical tensions, inflation expectations, and continued central bank gold purchases—during the first three quarters of 2025, global central banks net purchased over 600 tons of gold. In terms of market size, the global total gold stock is about 21.6-28.2 thousand tons (including mine production, central bank reserves, and jewelry, etc.), with a total value of about $27 trillion at the current price. The global annual demand is about 4,500-5,000 tons, reaching 1,249 tons in the second quarter of 2025 (valued at about $132 billion, a 45% year-on-year increase), and the full-year demand is expected to exceed 5,000 tons.

In the field of Real World Assets (RWA) commodities, the asset structure is relatively concentrated. Gold-backed tokens, with their traditional safe-haven characteristics and mature on-chain issuance mechanisms, have become the preferred choice for users to allocate to RWA commodities. This growth reflects both the market's increasing demand for on-chain commodity assets and gold's pioneering breakthrough as a "digitally native" physical asset in the RWA field. Gold-backed tokens such as Tether Gold and Paxos Gold are core assets in the RWA commodities field, with their market capitalization far exceeding other commodities (such as oil and agricultural product tokens). Especially after July 2025, the market capitalization of gold-backed RWA tokens experienced explosive growth, becoming a key driver of the overall track's expansion.

The tokenized gold market is currently dominated by products such as Tether Gold (XAUt) and Paxos Gold (PAXG), both of which are pegged 1:1 to physical gold. However, they have distinct differences in strategic focus and user service. The former is suitable for users seeking convenience in trading and yield opportunities, while the latter is more suitable for holders focusing on security and preferring long-term allocation.

Tether Gold (XAUt) is the largest-volume tokenized gold, issued by Tether, with each token corresponding to one ounce of physical gold stored in professional vaults. As of November 2025, its market capitalization is approximately $2.1 billion, accounting for 56.8% of the market, making it an absolute leader. XAUt can be traded on exchanges such as OKX, supports small-scale holdings, and can be redeemed for physical gold at a fee of 0.1%–0.5%. Some DeFi protocols also support collateralization or earning rewards. Technically, it operates on multiple-chain networks such as Ethereum, Solana, and Algorand. According to data released by Tether, its gold reserves exceed 7.7 tons. However, due to centralized custody and past transparency controversies related to Tether, users still need to be aware of custody and audit risks.

Paxos Gold (PAXG) emphasizes compliance and targets institutional and cautious users. It is issued by Paxos Trust Company, regulated by the New York Department of Financial Services, with each token corresponding to one ounce of physical gold in the London vault. Its advantages lie in compliance and traceability, as users can query on-chain for the gold bar number corresponding to the token and storage information. As of November 2025, its market capitalization is approximately $1.12 billion, accounting for 30.3% of the market, with over 41,000 holder addresses. PAXG supports purchases starting from 0.01 ounces and can be traded on OKX or the Paxos website. It also allows redemption for physical gold bars, unallocated gold, or fiat currency. Settlements are completed the same day, with total costs ranging from 19 to 40 basis points, no custody fees, audits conducted by KPMG, monthly reserve reports, and industry-leading transparency.

（IV）Listed Stocks: Tech Stocks and ETF Tokenization Take Center Stage

In the RWA space, listed stocks refer to traditional publicly traded company stocks that have been tokenized using blockchain technology as crypto assets. Each token represents partial ownership of the company's stock, allowing holders to receive dividends and voting rights. Through tokenization, stocks can achieve 24/7 trading, high liquidity, and cross-border settlement on the blockchain while maintaining compliance and transparency.

As of November 10, 2025, the total locked value of listed stocks was approximately $661 million, with a monthly trading volume of $973 million (a MoM increase of +56.35%), 75,738 active addresses (a MoM increase of +133.38%), and a total holder count exceeding 109,000 (a MoM increase of +34.43%). Overall, user participation and trading activity are continuously rebounding, indicating that the market is entering a new growth cycle.

Tokenized stocks are facing a "triple dilemma" of structure, liquidity, and regulation. The mainstream model relies on SPV wrapping, criticized for not granting users full shareholder rights, but supporters argue that this is a necessary step from 0 to 1. The most critical pain point is liquidity: weekend market makers are unwilling to hold inventory, resulting in large spreads and shallow depth. A Musk tweet at dawn could instantly disrupt on-chain prices, followed by a spot market pullback on Monday, leading to perpetual retail investor liquidation. DeFi borrowing could trigger a chain reaction of liquidations at this price. The real opportunity may not lie in the next Robinhood but in the "water seller" providing infrastructure for it.

From an asset structure perspective, current tokenized stocks are still dominated by tech stocks and ETF products, with the market highly concentrated in a few top projects. For example, Exodus Movement Inc. (EXOD) ranks first with a total value of $194 million. On October 20, 2025, Exodus announced the expansion of its common stock token to Solana via the Superstate issuance platform (previously primarily on the Algorand chain), becoming a representative case of "on-chain native stocks," demonstrating that compliant equity tokenization is moving from concept to implementation.

The popularity of tech giants has also continued onto the chain. Tesla xStock (TSLAx), issued by Backed Finance on Solana, has a total value of approximately $29.44 million with over 17,000 holders, indicating that tech stocks still maintain their appeal in the crypto market. In addition, the combined market value of two tokenized ETFs, SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPYon) and iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVVon), exceeds $45 million, issued by Ondo Finance, further solidifying the strategic position of ETF tokenization in providing broad market exposure.

From the issuance side, the growth of this space has been dominated by a few key platforms. They widely adopt 1:1 backing of real-world assets and achieve asset mapping and yield distribution through on-chain infrastructure. Ondo Finance ($ONDO) holds the top spot with approximately 47.8% market share ($316 million), focusing on ETF tokenization (such as SPYon, IVVon, QQQon), running on its proprietary Ondo Chain and Nexus framework, and currently driving the ETF tokenization space.

Although Securitize has only issued the EXOD asset so far, it commands close to a third of the market share with a total value of $194 million. As a compliance platform regulated by the SEC, Securitize is strategically positioned in institutional-grade equity tokenization and has cumulatively processed over $10 billion in assets by 2025. Additionally, Backed Finance (BackedFi) holds approximately 18.6% market share ($123 million) and focuses on technology stock tokenization (such as TSLAx, NVDAx), ensuring price accuracy through Chainlink oracles and actively expanding into the Solana multi-chain ecosystem. Representing a traditional financial giant, WisdomTree's WisdomTree 500 Digital Fund (SPXUX) captures around 3.4% market share, emphasizing ETF digital fund issuance and leveraging its traditional finance (TradFi) experience to accelerate compliant implementations.

Overall, the top four platforms collectively hold over 90% of the market share. With mainstream exchanges like Robinhood and Kraken gradually opening up tokenized stock trading by mid-2025, coupled with the maturity of cross-chain settlement and regulatory interoperability, tokenized stocks are transitioning from a niche experiment to a mainstream asset class.

However, centralized custody and regulatory fragmentation remain persistent risks in this space that require ongoing attention.

While tokenizing publicly traded stocks brings convenience, it does not address the fundamental pain point since the traditional brokerage experience is already good enough. The next wave of growth is more likely to stem from a core contradiction: providing efficiency premiums for traditional inefficient assets.

The primary battleground for growth will shift from the transparent and efficient public markets (listed stocks, government bonds) to the private markets (private credit, private equity). The true pain points of these markets lie in difficulty in exits, unclear valuations, and slow settlements—for example, selling a stake in a private equity fund might take months and still rely on emails and manual matching. Through on-chain settlement and fractional ownership, tokenization can reduce the timeframe from months to minutes, unlocking liquidity for non-standard assets. The real product-market fit (PMF) lies in the tokenization of private credit and pre-IPO equity (such as SpaceX), not only lowering the investment threshold but also addressing industry-level challenges of capital lock-ins and price discovery.

(5) Real Estate: Fractional Ownership Lowers Investment Threshold

The RWA real estate track refers to the tokenization of traditional real estate assets through blockchain, allowing ownership or revenue shares to be traded and managed on-chain. The market growth is mainly driven by fractional ownership, enabling global users to invest in high-value properties with thresholds as low as $50 (such as Lofty AI), and benefit from rental income and the efficiency of instant settlement.

While private credit, US treasuries, and the like occupy the vast majority of the share, real estate tokenization is still in a rapid growth phase with significant long-term potential. However, the structural challenges of real estate tokenization will not automatically disappear with "going on-chain": pricing lacks a transparent benchmark, property transfers are complex, and cash flow costs remain high. Even with real estate tokens or NFTs, their real-world ownership still relies on off-chain contracts and registration systems, which is why RWAs are primarily focused on standardized assets like government bonds while real estate remains in the pilot stage.

Players in the real estate track are highly focused on addressing the two major pain points of compliance and liquidity, mainly divided into equity tokenization and transaction settlement platforms, such as:

RealT is a pioneer in the fractional ownership model of real estate, managing assets of over $500 million as of November 2025. Its core model is equity tokens, where each token represents a share of the underlying US residential property LLC ownership, allowing token holders to receive rental dividends and potential property appreciation. With a low threshold, typically requiring only a few hundred dollars to purchase, earnings are automatically distributed to a compatible wallet, enabling retail investors to easily participate in US real estate.

Propy focuses on the real estate transaction process, having already processed over $1 billion in transactions. Its model is NFT-Backed Deeds, where NFTs map property deeds to enable automated sales and property transfers. Users can complete tokenized property transactions, payments, and compliance verification within the app, significantly improving transaction efficiency and addressing the complex legal and custody processes in traditional transactions.

Lofty is an emerging player with rapid growth, with a TVL growth rate of 200%. Its model is AI-driven fractionalized rental properties, tokenizing leasehold real estate assets. Users have a very low investment threshold, starting from $50 to purchase tokens, and all investment management (such as rental income and exit mechanisms) is processed in real-time through the app, allowing retail investors to easily participate in real estate.

(6) Stablecoins: Absolute Dominance

After incorporating stablecoins, reinterpreting the RWA market based on asset category market capitalization, it is undoubtedly clear that the market cap of stablecoins is over ten times the sum of other RWA categories, ranking first. This means that stablecoins are the liquidity foundation and base of the entire on-chain RWA ecosystem. The future growth potential and innovation story of the RWA track mainly lie in how to use this infrastructure tool to bring trillion-dollar non-monetary real-world assets (such as bonds, credit, and stocks) onto the chain.

A stablecoin is a type of cryptocurrency whose value is pegged to a fiat currency, commodity, or other financial asset, designed to maintain price stability on-chain. According to CoinGecko data, as of November 11, the total stablecoin market capitalization was $311.99 billion. In terms of issuance networks, Ethereum leads in stablecoin market cap, followed by TRON, while networks like Solana and Arbitrum also hold a certain share, reflecting the distribution differences of stablecoins in a multi-chain ecosystem.

The stablecoin market is highly concentrated, with USDT and USDC accounting for over 80% of the market cap. They are predominantly backed by fiat reserves, cash, and US Treasury bonds, exhibiting a high degree of centralization. They are mainly used in traditional scenarios such as cross-border payments, transaction settlements, and corporate payroll. On the other hand, mid- and small-cap stablecoins like DAI, USDe, sDAI, etc., adopt yield-bearing or over-collateralization models, are partially decentralized, rely on on-chain monitoring and smart contracts, and serve DeFi, on-chain lending, and asset tokenization, with higher risks and volatility. Overall, centralized fiat-backed stablecoins are low-risk and transparent, while innovative stablecoins emphasize on-chain financial functions and automated yield.

The centralization of stablecoins stems from the inherent need for fiat backing: issuance and management must rely on regulated financial institutions. While decentralization is technically feasible, the design complexity and cost are high, leading most transactions to occur on Layer 2. Users are willing to pay a premium for decentralization at the core settlement layer, but for low cost and speed, they are more inclined to accept centralization at the upper layers.

Issuers have the motivation to keep activities on their controlled networks (e.g., Circle's Arc, Tether's Stable, and Plasma), while crypto and fintech players hope transactions will take place on networks they control (e.g., Base, Robinhood Chain). This competition will determine the future landscape of the stablecoin ecosystem.

The table below provides an overview of the world's major stablecoins (as of November 11, 2025)

As the most mature and strategically core liquidity infrastructure in RWA, stablecoins play a pivotal role. Firstly, top centralized stablecoins (such as USDT, USDC) introduce the stable value and low-risk yield of off-chain assets into DeFi through allocating high liquidity RWAs like US Treasury bonds, reconstructing the trust foundation of a 1:1 fiat peg. Secondly, yield-bearing stablecoins (like USDe, USDM) convert off-chain asset yield into on-chain native yield through derivatives or tokenized government bonds, enabling stablecoins to not only have payment functions but also offer low-volatility investment returns. Lastly, as a unified pricing and settlement tool, stablecoins achieve cross-scenario interoperability in various RWA projects, enhancing asset liquidity and capital efficiency, becoming a core value bridge in the on-chain RWA ecosystem.

It is worth noting that stablecoins and tokenized government bonds are forming a complementarity, with the former being on-chain cash for payments and the latter on-chain savings for yield and collateral, jointly constructing the dual-layer monetary structure of on-chain finance.

III. Why Will RWA Become a Key Narrative in 2025?

In 2025, the narrative of RWA will reach its climax, but ultimately it may not be dominated by crypto companies. Platforms like Robinhood, through a unified interface (stocks, crypto, future private credit), aggregate traffic and earn distribution fees; while traditional financial giants controlling trillions of assets (such as BlackRock, Fidelity) hold the top of the value chain, they have the capability to launch their own L2 or private chains, connecting assets, tokenization services, trading, and settlement to form a closed loop.

The long-term story of RWA is not about crypto disrupting traditional finance, but about traditional finance going on-chain. Crypto companies may step back into the role of infrastructure providers, with their opportunity lying in servicing the long tail assets that traditional giants cannot efficiently cover, or establishing an irreplaceable competitive advantage in key areas such as cross-chain settlement, privacy computing, and dynamic risk pricing. Its core value lies in activating the liquidity of illiquid assets and providing investment opportunities for approximately 1.7 billion unbanked individuals worldwide, achieving true financial inclusion.

Despite the promising prospects, RWA still faces multiple challenges: regulatory fragmentation increases the cost of cross-border issuance and compliance pressure, the SEC may classify some RWAs as securities; legal complexity, oracle vulnerabilities, and centralized custody bring counterparty risks; market volatility and privacy compliance issues slow down adoption pace. During a credit expansion cycle, underwriting standards may loosen, collateral quality may deteriorate quietly, laying hidden risks for the next recession. When DeFi protocols introduce RWA as collateral, they must have a thorough understanding of the credit risk of their underlying assets.

Therefore, from a strategic perspective, a hybrid model that combines CeFi and DeFi is needed to maintain development momentum. Users are best advised to choose a diversified portfolio and operate through audited platforms; issuers should embed ERC-3643 compliance standards from the outset; regulators also need a unified framework to avoid fragmentation. Overall, RWA is not a bubble but an important cornerstone of crypto finance, poised to underpin approximately 30% of global financial assets by 2030.

Disclaimer:

This article is for reference only. The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not represent the opinion of OKX. This article is not intended to provide (i) investment advice or investment recommendations; (ii) an offer or solicitation to buy, sell, or hold digital assets; or (iii) financial, accounting, legal, or tax advice. We do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of such information. Holding digital assets (including stablecoins and NFTs) involves high risks and may experience significant volatility. You should carefully consider whether trading or holding digital assets is suitable for you based on your financial condition. For your specific circumstances, please consult your legal/tax/investment professional. You are solely responsible for understanding and complying with relevant local laws and regulations.

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