The tokenization narrative remained one of the most successful categories of tokens, retaining its earnings in an otherwise bearish period. Led by Ondo (ONDO), the sector posted gains where all other token classes had a negative performance.
RWA tokens were the only asset class to end the last month with a positive performance, besides Bitcoin (BTC). RWA tokens surpassed all other narratives, especially the AI agents sector, which erased over 70% of its value.
In the past 24 hours, 46% of tracked RWA tokens were in the green, with 54% in the red. Trading volumes for the whole sector also expanded by over 142%.
ONDO, OM lead the way for RWA
The RWA token sector holds a total valuation of $35B, with over 60% of the value held by Chainlink (LINK), MANTRA (OM), and Ondo (ONDO). Almost all the leading tokens have sparked predictions of an eventual rally, in addition to long-term expectations for the sector as a whole.
ONDO drew attention for its presence in the wallet of World Liberty Financial, in addition to the recent Ondo summit. Ondo also launched Ondo Chain, an L1 specifically created for institutional tokenization. Ondo Finance has not announced an official partnership with World Liberty Fi, despite the recent series of purchases.
All those factors added to the RWA narrative, boosting exposure in the past week. The performance of RWA hinges on the hype affecting multiple tokens in the sector. At this point, RWA liquidity is fragmented and there is no standard of settlement or compatibility. Tokenization by mainstream companies like BlackRock is quite different from small-scale tokenization efforts from purely crypto startups.
RWA tokenization projects still rely mostly on Ethereum, with fewer launches on Base or Solana. The sector turned to green in the past day. RWA tokens are not limited to blue chips or the creators of stablecoins. Instead, multiple niche projects have launched across Ethereum, all vying for attention as the next platform that will transform RWA token issuance, trading, and settlement.
Multiple new RWA tokenization projects rallied in the past days, each promising to tap all assets in the world of TradFi. | Source: Alphanomics
RWA tokens are not guaranteed a rally, and the past week saw a 2% slide for the sector. However, the tokens are seen as one of the potential sources for a new altcoin season, in case the meme token hype slows down. RWA is also down 28% in the past three months, though data may vary based on the selection of specific tokens.
The RWA token narrative includes meme-like projects that share the hype. Not all projects are equal, and some may be extremely volatile. New projects promise to tokenize all assets and shift settlement on-chain, again with no certainty on standards and adoption.
Ethereum remains the leading chain for tokenization
At least 112 entities have issued tokens based on real-world assets, coming from traditional finance. Of those issuers, 67 have chosen Ethereum, 28 have moved to ZK Sync Era, and there are only 3 issuers on Solana.
The issuers are not the same set of projects as the newly trending small RWA tokenization projects. Some of the issuers are older, surviving from previous bull markets.
In total, RWA tokens carry $17.18B in value, while excluding stablecoins. The most common type of asset to be tokenized is private debt. Around $3.59B of tokenized value comes from US government debt.
Stocks and commodities, as well as the promised real estate tokenization, are some of the rare use cases for tokenization. RWA assets also range between those used for business and those used for speculative informal trading on crypto markets.
Gold-backed tokens get a trading boost
One of the use cases for RWA is tokenized commodities. The recent rally of gold to an all-time high was also reflected in gold-backed tokens.
In crypto, all gold-backed tokens are valued at only $1.7B, a relatively small subset of crypto assets. RWA is expected to tap traditional assets in the trillions, moving beyond its early stage.
PAX Gold and Tether Gold were among the most widely traded tokenized gold assets, both reflecting gold’s rally above $2,900 per ounce. For now, gold tokenization is relatively rare, due to regulatory and storage requirements.
