🐳 RWAs Bigger Than Crypto Itself?

Tokenized assets keep growing, and Chainlink’s Sergey Nazarov is now saying they’ll surpass the entire crypto market in size.

And why not? Tokenized Treasuries just tore past the $2 billion mark after hitting $1 billion five months ago. That’s fast. 🚀

🎯🔥 Rapid Fire Takeaways:

🤨 Ethereum centralization: a single builder accounts for over half of August blocks

💥 Gartner hype cycle: stablecoins to go mainstream within two years

🎨 Boson Protocol and Superchief Gallery Tokenize $5.1 Million Art Collection

🏝️ UAE Gets Its Own Tether: AED Stablecoin

🚔 Telegram CEO Pavel Durov Could Be Free by October: Polymarket Bettors

2️⃣ Sony Block Solutions Labs Introduces Soneium, an Ethereum L2 Project

⚔️ Nasdaq Looks to Offer Bitcoin Options, Following Rival NYSE’s Plans

Need more proof? Experts predict that stablecoins will be mainstream within two years and that RWAs and DePIN will lead the next wave of adoption. 🧠

It’s all coming together – DeFi and TradFi are merging, as evidenced by Centrifuge working on a lending market with Morpho and Coinbase.  💭

🧂 Salt Lake Vibes

Did you miss that RWA World is officially collaborating with Segmint? We’re pretty excited about that one. 😉

In fact, Segmint CEO Matt Bartlett will be at RWA Day on October 8 in Salt Lake City, Utah! Come say “Hi” while there’s room and secure a $500 value for free while there’s still room. 🏃

And check out the exclusive RWA Day media partner, Block Fuel’s recent podcast on the event to learn more! 🧠

We’ll see you at the RWA World Roundup on Friday at 9:30 am EDT between now and then! 🤠 

🤝 Big Deals for Tokenized Assets 

So, what’s underpinning this insane growth? Fundamental growth, like State Street doubling down on digital assets with a Taurus partnership and Platonic kicking off a decentralized tokenization platform for institutions. Add in Anchorage Digital offering rewards for holders of PayPal’s PYUSD stablecoin and Sony launching a Layer 2 blockchain (Soneium), and mainstream adoption starts to look more than possible. 💸

Avalanche was a big winner this week, with Grayscale launching an Avalanche Trust for investors and Franklin Templeton launching their BENJI money market fund on the network.  Boson Protocol has also been working hard, tokenizing a $5.1 million art collection. Small ticket compared to the $300 million digital bond launched by AIIB with Euroclear and the €100 million bond by Natixis Pfandbriefbank, but different markets, different sizes.🖼️

Some of the biggest news on the block(chain) is MakerDAO’s new look – they’ve officially rebranded to Sky, and their DAI token has been upgraded to USDS. The entire Maker ecosystem is making big moves. Chronicle, one of the first oracles on the blockchain, is releasing an RWA oracle for the M^0 network. The OGs are gearingup for big things. 🥊

💭 Big States, Big Plans for DLT 

All around the world, States are becoming more interested in harnessing the power of blockchain, particularly for payments.  LatAm’s MercadoLibre has announced its plans for a dollar-backed stablecoin, dubbed the Meli Dolar, in Brazil, and Wyoming has similar plans for a home-grown stablecoin. The US isn’t alone, though – Banking Circle is digitizing the euro via its EURI stablecoin. 💱

The greenback isn’t the only medium of exchange on the block. The UAE is working with none other than USDT issuer Tether on a Dirham-backed stablecoin, while Russia is seeking to create two new crypto exchanges and a stablecoin to circumvent sanctions. Others are keeping things a bit more tame, with Japan focusing on tokenized deposits and Singapore on tokenized grant disbursements. 🧘

Speaking of Asia, Hong Kong’s Project Ensemble is now ready to test various asset tokenization approaches and strategies, further cementing its place as a frontrunner in viable jurisdictions for tokenization. Testing seems to be in style. India came out this week saying they’re not rushing their CBDC. Slow and steady might win the race. 🐢

🎭 Drama and Hopes of Decentralization 

What’s a week of tokenization without a bit of drama? Prometheum, the only recipient of a special-purpose broker-dealer (SPBD) license in the US (much to the chagrin of Coinbase), seems to have inadvertently called Arbitrum and Uniswap’s tokens (ARB and UNI) securities. On the subject of the US, Trump dropped his fourth NFT this week – he’s making a fortune on digital assets. 👀

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov remains in custody in France and cannot leave the country. Polymarket is betting he’ll be out by October, and with much of Web3 using Telegram as a primary messaging app, we’re sure many have their fingers crossed. The industry needs all the decentralization it can get – a single block builder on Ethereum, Beaverbuild, accounted for more than half of all blocks in August… is Ethereum slowly centralizing under our noses? 😬

Already centralized solutions won’t mind. JP Morgan’s Onyx announced it will be led by Naveen Mallela and Tyrone Lobban following Umar Farooq’s departure in June, so it’s prepared for new market share. Same with the Nasdaq, which followed the NYSE’s lead and is now planning for Bitcoin options. Meanwhile, the central bank, the most centralized entity of all, could leave Treasury tokenizers like Ondo facing demand headwinds, but not without utility, warns Kaiko Research in a recent report. 

🎆 End of Tokenization Summer?

While summer is slowly on the way out, tokenization is still heating up. 

Keep up with all the action by following the RWA World Twitter/X account.

And don’t forget to sign up for RWA Day and secure your spot before the remaining seats are filled! 

We’ll catch you in the next one. 👋