🤯 Just Kidding – BUIDL Almost $2 Billion Now

End-of-week vibes all around – and yours truly, Ray Buckton, Head of Research at RWA World, is 100% here for it. 💯

Hey, remember last week when BlackRock’s BUIDL hit $1 billion? Well, one week later, it’s almost $2 billion as they expand the fund to Solana. 👀

As tokenized treasuries soar past $5 billion and real-world asset protocols surpass $10 billion in total value locked, we’re witnessing the dot-com moment for blockchain. 🖱️

🎯🔥 Rapid Fire Takeaways:

💹 BlackRock’s BUIDL expands to Solana as tokenized money market fund nears $2B

🔮 Dubai Starts Real Estate Tokenization Pilot, Forecasts $16B Market by 2033

🧪 Tokenization Will Merge Crypto And Equities: Bernstein

💪 SEC Drops Case Against Ripple

🐉 Chinese think tank mulls US dollar stablecoin response

🤝 DTCC Joins ERC3643 Association

🕓 Private company shares could be tokenized in the ‘next 4 years’: Blockworks Research

That sweet, sweet regulatory clarity likely has something to do with it. The SEC’s Crypto Task Force is talking DeFi and tokenization at one of their fancy round tables. 🪑

They also dropped the case against Ripple and said certain proof of work activities aren’t securities, so the progress is happening at breakneck speed. 🏎️

🌐 Tokenization is a Worldwide Phenomenon

Not a corner of the world is going untouched by this renaissance in financial technology. The UAE has been a hotbed for innovation lately – they kicked off a real estate tokenization pilot and tokenization sandbox in one fell swoop. Abu Dhabi also penned an agreement between ADGM and Chainlink to move things along. 🐪

Asia has also been a booming region, as China’s CPIC debuted a $100 million fund with HashKey, all while a Chinese think tank opined how to counter the US dollar stablecoin move. Further south, Malaysia’s central bank explored how to better support tokenization and blockchain-based technologies. 🌏

Zipping through the South and East China Seas, we end up in Japan, where the Asia Web3 Alliance Japan has been urging a US partnership on tokenization regulation. Circle’s debut of USDC in Japan this week might contribute to the mounting pressure. And out of Korea, Kyobo Life is working to tokenize aircraft engines with Shinhan. ⛩️

🎶 Institutions Sing Along

As states make moves, institutions do so in tandem. VanEck Ventures led the recent round for real estate tokenization by Manifest, while our friends at Chronicle finalized their $12 million round. If you haven’t heard of Chronicle, they’re the decentralized oracle provider making a massive difference in how you can retrieve on-chain data – they’re worth exploring. 👁️

CME Group and its massive derivatives portfolio are now working with Google Cloud on tokenization, and Goldman, HKMA, and Moody's are officially joining the Canton Network. All that, plus Standard Chartered singing an MOU to join the SIX Digital Exchange. Big names, big moves, big strides for tokenized assets. 👣

Regarding acquisitions, institutional DLT infrastructure provider Blockdaemon bought Expand Network for its API, helping expand its horizons (pun totally intended). The giant DTCC also joined the ERC3643 association by Tokeny. For further reading, check out the deep dive report RWA World did on the ERC3643 contract suite a while back with our friends at QualitaX. ✍️

🔒 Securities Getting Tokenized

Things are moving fast, and Blockworks thinks that private shares of companies could be tokenized within the next four years. That aligns with the recent mass tokenization of Apple, Tesla, and others in DigitFT’s new index fund. 📊

Even Ark Invest’s Cathie Wood wants to bring her funds on-chain, further bolstering the momentum. And 21Shares couldn’t be left out of the party as they expand their footprint with some new listings on Nasdaq Stockholm. 📋

To make the point even finer, Bernstein is out here saying tokenization will completely merge crypto and equities—a big claim, but the data backs it up. Polymesh and Ocree Capital just tokenized $52 million of Canadian commercial property, while Real Estate Exchange officially launched on Polygon. 🏠

⚖️ Regulatory & Stablecoin Landscape

How tokenization happens is primarily defined by the rules and regulations of the relevant jurisdiction. Australia is working to clear things up with new rules on stablecoins and custody on the agenda. All the while, the Swiss central bank is exploring a synthetic CBDC, while Italy is bullish on the digital euro, eyeing around €880M in annual savings for its banks. 💶

Stablecoins are the name of the game for governments right now, and Custodia’s recent bank-issued stablecoin on Ethereum and Ubyx’s plans to launch a stablecoin off-ramp for banks are making waves. 🌊

The landscape is getting more interesting by the day, with Tabit offering USD-denominated insurance policies completely backed by its Bitcoin regulatory capital. But it’s not all sunshine for everyone – Bakkt has been struggling lately and just named a co-CEO while cutting its payments arm to focus more firmly on crypto. 🔍

👏 We Did It Again, Folks 

We made it through yet another fantastic week.

Tokenization is hitting its hockey stick growth moment, and we’re so excited to see it. 

Supporting the industry is what we do, so if there’s any way we can help you or your company, don’t hesitate to reach out. 

Until next time!