🎊 2024 Tokenization Lookback!

From BlackRock coming on-chain to billion-dollar milestones being broken, 2024 has proven an epic year for tokenized assets. 🥳

We’ll be meeting next in 2025, so this issue is filled with a look back at the past year and some of the amazing things we’ve accomplished as an industry.. and, of course, the last news to hit the wire of the year. 🤝

🎯🔥 Rapid Fire Takeaways:

😁 RWA-Focused Network Plume Raises $20M from Brevan Howard and Others Ahead of Mainnet Launch

Ⓜ️ Usual Partners M^0, Adopts $M for Reserves

🤖 Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino Teases AI Platform Targeting Early 2025 Debut

📜 Private Credit Tokenization Hits $650 Million Monthly, Setting A New Benchmark

💰 T-RIZE Group secured a $300M tokenization deal

⚖️ China jails traders for 5 years re Tether stablecoin FX

📊 Trump Names Crypto-Friendly Stephen Miran as Chair of Council of Economic Advisers

By the way, IOTA has brought this week’s newsletter to you again. They’ve been celebrating new years since 2016, and with their recent MoveVM and EVM compatibility, they’re ringing in 2025 with a fresh new vibe. 👀

They’re also offering $100 million worth of IOTA tokens to support their new approach and were the first to register with the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) – they’re worth checking out. 💎

📅 A 2024 Year in Review

While Boston Consulting Group’s $16 trillion tokenization prediction hit the wire in 2022, it started to take shape this year. Regulatory battle lines were drawn as assets made their way on-chain in full force. 

In February, Circle announced that it was pulling the plug on USDC on the Tron network. The reason? A lack of regulatory clarity surrounding Tron. As a highly regulated, US-based stablecoin, Circle can’t afford any shade from Washington. Note that the less regulated USDT sees most of its volume on Tron.

In March, BlackRock launched its BUIDL fund on Ethereum. But Securitize was a big winner here, having helped launch the fund. Its growing role in helping big names tokenize is hard to overstate. 

In April, we passed a decisive milestone of $1 billion in T-Bills on-chain. BlackRock’s BUIDL helped, but forward-thinking pioneers like Superstate and its USTB shouldn’t be overlooked – their composability is worth exploring.

In May, we saw the ETH ETF approved. Surprising, given Gary Gensler (retiring in the new year) was still perched atop the SEC. Nevertheless, the US has its ETH ETF… and it's much less popular than its BTC counterpart. 

In June, McKinsey shocked the industry by calling for a meager $2 trillion in tokenized assets by 2030. Whether you take it as an affront to progress thus far or a breath of level-headed fresh air, it’s much less than what we saw…

In July from Standard Chartered, which called for $31 trillion in trade finance assets tokenzied by 2034. Talk about a divergence of opinion – a 15x more bullish prediction. Shout out to our friends at XDC for building the rails to make trade finance tokenization possible. 

In August, we heard Trump tease the United States Bitcoin Reserve live in Nashville. A surreal moment and a potential sign of big things for the world’s largest digital assets by market cap. 

In September, our friends at Plume hit their stride. They’ve been building diligently for a long while, and the network is prepped for billions and billions in tokenized assets. Their $10 million seed round and $20 million Series A shortly thereafter is worth celebrating. 

In October, we saw murmurs of debanking start to hit the wire. While tokenization has taken flight, 95% of payment service providers (PSPs) have seen account closure of restrictions from dealing with digital assets. We’re still in the early days of tokenization. 

Once regulatory clarity helps PSPs, the barrier to global adoption will be formally broken, and we’ll see unprecedented movements. 

In November, debanking was confirmed. Marc Andreessen spoke with Joe Rogan about his experiences, and Facebook’s head of Libra Davis Marcus claimed Janet Yellen personally killed the tokenization platform in its cradle.

It was a fantastic year with equally impressive headlines, builders, and thinkers. ♥️

Now, let’s wrap up with some headlines. 👇

📰 Last Headlines of the Year! 

We weren’t kidding about Plume – they’re partnering with Google Cloud to make RWA onboarding even easier. 🚀

BlackRock’s BUIDL also might need to step it up a notch, as Hashnote’s USDY just claimed the top spot for tokenized Treasuries thanks to an integration with Usual Protocol, which also just integrated M^0 for reserves. 🏛️

Tether is also a big winner, per usual. Its $775 million stake in Rumble kicked up the RUM stock by 41%, and Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino is exploring AI for 2025. Meanwhile, Prometheum secured $20 million in funding, while T-RIZE Group snagged a $300 million tokenization deal. 💸

On the regulatory side, Hong Kong granted four digital trading platforms a license, while Germany finally implemented MiCAR for crypto and granted Cashlink its custody license. Nearby Luxembourg also passed blockchain legislation for digital fund issuance, making things easier for the new year. 📜

While Trump handed pro-crypto Stephen Miran the Chair of Council of Economic Advisers role, China threw some traders in jail for 5 years for using Tether to avoid FX regulations. Is the tide inverting? 🌊

👋 See Ya Next Year! 

It has been our honor to bring you the best of the best of tokenization throughout 2024. 

And we’re excited to do the same in 2025! 

If you’re like us and can’t get enough tokenization, maybe check out today’s sponsor, IOTA. 

They're working on some cool stuff with dual MoveVM and EVM compatibility,  $100 million worth of IOTA tokens on the line, and a fresh registration with the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM). 

Happy New Year, and here’s to an even better 2025! 🎊