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- Q1 ‘24 Tokenization Takeover - Superstate Rises! 🚀
Q1 ‘24 Tokenization Takeover - Superstate Rises! 🚀
RWA World Newsletter - May 10, 2024
Ray Buckton
May 10, 2024
Real-world assets dominated the first quarter of the year, offering 285.6% returns, according to CoinGecko. 📈
BlackRock’s $380+ million, Franklin Templeton’s $365+ million, and Ondo’s $135+ million lead the tokenized U.S. Treasury charge, putting a nice bow on a historic quarter for tokenization. 💝
🎯🔥 Rapid Fire Takeaways:
But Gary’s War continues, this time with Robinhood in the crosshairs! 🎯
Q2 is shaping up to be just as spicy as the first chunk of the year – let’s dive in! 🌶️🏊
👋 Come Say “Hi” Y’all!
Every Thursday, 2 pm EDT, the melding on the RWA minds commences on Wolf Web3, where you’ll find the most insightful Space on tokenization on the web! 🔊
This week, we had a powerful discussion with BlockApps (tokenizing for a decade), Chateau (bringing equities on-chain), Ethereum co-founder Vinay of Mattereum (already preparing tokenized assets for the 22nd century), and MORE! 💥
Stop by next week. 😉
🚀 RWAs Rising
Let’s break down the big wins of Q1 before highlighting ongoing partnerships, investments, and predictions. 🔍
Superstate’s new $82+ million USTB fund for tokenized U.S. Treasuries is turning heads. It’s sprinted into fourth place and shows no signs of slowing down! With Robert Leshner, famous for founding the DeFi lending platform Compound Finance, at the helm, it’s a clear sign of the growing intersection of on- and off-chain markets 🤝
It also helps explain why RWA was the second-most profitable narrative in Q1 after AI. According to Santiment, a leading on-chain research firm, Chainlink, Synthetix, and Centrifuge were the big winners in terms of RWA asset profitability this quarter. 🏅
Source: CoinGecko
And this is only the beginning, according to Kinto co-founders Victor Sanchez and Alan Keegan – BlackRock is aware of the multi-trillion-dollar opportunity found in real-world assets and is preparing accordingly. Mantra Chain CEO and founder John Patrick Mullin seems to agree, stating that while not everything needs to be tokenized, the world is clearly coming on-chain.
The result is more momentum than ever before. RWA deals are being penned by state-owned banks in the Emirates, Untangled Finance just opened the door to Celo with a private credit pool, and Vodaphone is linking SIM cards to tokenized deposits. Told ya it was getting spicy! 🔥
🎲 Realistic Regulations or Risky Ramp-Up?
A mix of positive and negative tokenization news from the United States this week. 🦅
On one hand, the crusade against digital assets continues, with Robinhood receiving a Wells Notice. Former SEC Commissioner and CLO Dan Gallagher is having none of it, and is fighting back. He claims that after over a dozen meetings with the agency, Robinhood’s good-faith efforts to “come in and register” yielded nothing of substance. 🤷
On the other hand, Congress has passed a bill to overturn SAB121, which requires U.S. banks to count custodied digital assets on their books. U.S. banks may finally have a shot with digital asset custody… unless the President vetoes the bill as promised. 😬
Meanwhile, ESMA is eyeing crypto UCITS, potentially enabling indirect exposure to digital assets for hundreds of millions of people. With the EU’s digital finance package and the UK’s FSMA offering slightly different opportunities, digital asset competition is heating up in the Old World.
🏎️ Adoption Accelerates
With a blockbuster Q1 and jurisdictions offering different flavors of optionality, Q2 is shaping up to be even more savory. 🍖
SBI has partnered with Chiliz to add a Japanese flair to football tokens. Sports are a quick way to the hearts of the masses and a lot more palpable to the average citizen than another feasibility trial with JPM, Citi, and eight other banks… which is still good news. ⚽
Banks everywhere are making progress. German state-owned KfW clarified its digital bond issuance, with plans to launch this summer. Germany is second only to the U.S. when it comes to tokenization initiatives, boasting 14.4% of all RWA companies. 🎉
Meanwhile, Hong Kong debuted a CBDC community for Project Ensemble, and the Swiss National Bank considered whether a wholesale CBDC would suit its needs relative to other options. ⚖️
JP Morgan also defended its private ledger turf, with Onyx CEO Umar Farooq stating that the opacity and inefficiency of public blockchains make them largely unsuitable for the volumes and nuance of modern finance. He raises great points – rather than being viewed as a public good, like the internet, many still view public blockchains as a golden ticket to riches. 🎟️
💕 Q2 Up Next!
What a fantastic start to the year. Tokenization isn’t going anywhere… except for up! 👆
It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, though – whether Gary keeps his SEC chair or not, SAB121 seems in for a fight. 🥊
All the while, the rest of the world keeps cooking up prescient legislation and regulations. 🧑🍳