🌬️ $1.4 Billion Gone With The Wind

Between market crashes and major hacks, we’ve had a heck of a week!  Ray Buckton, Head of Research at RWA World, back again to serve you up the best of the best. 😋

So, ByBit, one of the largest crypto exchanges, was recently hit with a $1.4 billion (yes, with a B) hack. 😬

The short story is that North Korean hackers spoofed the interface of their hardware wallets, making what seemed like a normal transfer turn into a nightmare scenario. 😵

🎯🔥 Rapid Fire Takeaways:

💵 Figure Markets Launched Industry First Yield-Bearing Stablecoin as an SEC Registered Public Security

💰 MANSA Secures $10 Million in Funding Led by Tether to Solve Liquidity Challenges in Cross-Border Payments

👑 RWA Tokenization Firm Centrifuge Has a New CEO, Bhaji Illuminati

💸 Ethena raises $100 million in private ENA token sale to build out new chain and institutional product

🐘 Thailand plans $148m in tokenized government bond issuance by October

💪 Crypto shows how powerful tokenizing private stocks would be — Robinhood CEO

📝 Chintai Tokenizes $570M Real Estate Cash-Flow for RealNOI

Thankfully, profiting from this exploit is harder than ever, as the major stablecoins can freeze any funds converted to their currencies. 💱

That compliance and authority is helpful and undoubtedly contributed to Circle’s USDC and EURC as the first recognized stablecoins of Dubai’s Financial Centre. 👀

🌐 Stablecoins Take Over The World

For such a stable asset, they’re certainly on the rise. SG-FORGE recently chose the Stellar network to launch its stablecoin, but Brazil’s Braza Group took a slightly different approach. They’ve selected the XRP Ledger for their BBRL stablecoin just as the country is eyeing its first spot XRP ETF – talk about timing. ⌚

Meanwhile, in the US, the SEC approved the first yield-bearing stablecoin security, YLDS, issued by Figure Markets. At the same time, MANSA closed a $10 million round led by Tether to solve liquidity problems in cross-border payments. Using stablecoins is getting easier by the day! 🗺️

However, the biggest stablecoin news this week comes straight from PayPal. They’re expanding their PYUSD stablecoin across all their products and services, touching 20 million merchants worldwide. This might just be the “AOL moment” for stables we’ve been waiting for. 💻

🏛️ Treasuries & Funds Get Tokenized 

Despite Bitcoin gaining ground, US Treasuries still make the world go ‘round. US Treasury products were officially launched on the EU’s first regulated tokenization exchange while Franklin Templeton expanded its FOBXX fund to European investors. And Libeara, not to be left out, kicked off its ULTRA Fund for treasuries on Ethereum. 📜

Regarding Bitcoin market share, the South African firm Altvest added the digital gold to its balance sheet as an inflation hedge. Traditional funds are increasingly seeking crypto exposure, but the opposite is also true, as Ethena raised $100 million in a private ENA token sale to keep up its pace of building on-chain products and services. 🤝

It’s not just US Treasuries either, as Thailand plans to turn $148 million worth of its government bonds into tokenized products by October of this year. Getting in on all the action can be tricky, so Canary Capital launched Axelar Trust for institutional investors to make things easier. 😌

🏁 Real-World Asset Milestones And Metrics

A recent report shows that Ethereum dominates the RWA landscape with 54.5% market share, but that’s underselling things a bit. Our recent research with our friends at Superstate shows that it’s closer to 89% when you adjust the data to account for giants like Figure Markets. 🧑‍🔬

Whatever way you slice it, things are moving. Centrifuge has a new CEO, Bhaji Illuminati, and Taurus released an open-source private security token framework for banks. Then, MANTRA launched a program for real-world asset startups with Google Cloud support. Robinhood’s CEO says this proves how powerful tokenizing private stocks could be. All in all, a big week. 🚀

It gets even better – our friends at Mavryk secured $5.2 million for their ecosystem, while Chintai tokenized $570 million in real estate cash flow for RealNOI. But seriously, if you haven’t checked out Mavryk yet, you definitely should – they’re tokenizing everything, including Bitcoin miners. ⛏️

🧑‍⚖️ Regulatory Movements And Industry Evolution 

Naturally, all this progress means regulation. US financial institutions recently penned a letter to crypto czar David Sacks asking for support on the corporate digital asset front as the landscape continues to change in the US. That shifting landscape led Citadel Securities to join the crypto trading bandwagon on the heels of the new administration’s broader blessing. 🙏

That blessing is coming in many forms, as Robinhood claims the SEC dismissed its investigation as tensions continue to ease between the industry and Washington. On the other side of the pond, Euroclear and Digital Asset are collaborating on mobilizing dolateral assets, and container carrier ONE is working with GSBN to digitize its bills of lading. 🚢

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 All In This Together

Many hands make light work, and bringing all the world’s assets on-chain is quite the task!

It’s a pleasure to be working on it with so many amazing people.

From our friends at Mavryk and their recent successful raise to the fantastic folks at Superstate and their world-class funds and research, we stand on the shoulders of giants.

Feel free to reach out if you ever need a hand, connection, or some data.

And, as always, we’ll see you next week!