RWA trend continues to surge while volatility rips crypto markets

The trend of tokenizing Real World Assets (RWA) has been steadily gaining momentum, while the crypto market, which laid the foundation for on-chain tokenization, goes through a record price volatility that wiped out more than $2 billion in leveraged positions. 

Last week Monday, the fallout from the DeepSeek AI model launch hit the crypto market hard, sending the flagship crypto, Bitcoin, below $100,000. However, it recovered above the $100,000 mark before the week ended. 

The story is similar this week as markets plunged to historic depths thanks to trepidation caused by President Donald Trump’s tariff threats. Even though Bitcoin dipped as low as $91,000, it has already reclaimed the $100,000 at the time of publication. 

Notably, one aspect of the market that has stayed immune to this volatility is the RWA sector. The merits of tokenization are just now coming to light, and it is still a severely undervalued sector in its infancy. It also stands to gain from the regulatory clarity that the Trump administration is expected to bring to crypto as various jurisdictions have even started developing frameworks.

According to data from RWA.xyz, a site that provides analytics on tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) like stablecoins, tokenized US Treasuries, bonds, cash equivalents, and other commodities (like gold, silver, and oil), the sector has been growing steadily. 

The total value of tokenized real-world assets (RWA) on-chain is now $17.10 billion, which reflects a 10.02% increase over the past 30 days. Holders have increased to 82,978, with a total of 112 issuers. 

Over the same 30-day period, the premier crypto BTC only rose about 2% while ETH fell by over 20% while enduring wide volatility swings in between. Other altcoins have suffered even more, and investor confidence dips and surges with price. 

The global RWA market is up and to the right 

According to data from RWA.xyz, the market cap of stablecoins is currently at $213.86 billion, having experienced a 4.84% increase in the last month. Meanwhile the monthly transfer volume is $3.35 trillion, down almost 28% from 30 days ago, and the number of holders has surpassed 140M. The largest issuer remains Tether, with Circle in second place and Ethena in third. Leading tokenized assets include USDT at $138.50 billion, USDC at $52.20 billion, and USYC at $1.20 billion.

The institutional funds section of the data monitors tokenized alternatives such as hedge funds, venture capital, private equity, and private credit. It holds a total value of $410.49 million, up 11.52% from 30 days ago. There are currently 8,343 asset holders and 48 monthly active addresses participating in the tokenized institutional funds market.

Private credit data focuses on the tokenization of private credit loans. According to data, active and total loan values are now at $11.81 billion and $21.49 billion, respectively, with a current average APR of 10.10%. The loans now total 2,414, with a bulk of them on the Provenance and Ethereum network. 

Tokenized commodities include digital assets pegged to commodities like gold, silver, and oil. It has a $1.14 billion market cap, with a monthly transfer volume of over $400 million. There are also 3,630 monthly active addresses and nearly 60,000 holders now. While precious metal products are already available, agricultural and oil & gas products are expected to be included soon.

RWAs as a diversification strategy 

While Ethereum has underperformed in the bull run, the network holds the top spot in terms of RWA tokenization activities. It currently leads with 67 RWAs valued at $3.77 billion. ZKsync Era follows with 28 RWAs valued at $1.93 billion and Arbitrum follows with 20 assets and a $75.84 billion valuation. 

Other networks with RWAs include Polygon and Base, both with 19 assets each. Polygon has a $181.35 million valuation, while Base lags behind with a $51.54 million. 

Solana, currently one of the hottest networks because it is home to the top-performing memecoins, has not done so well with RWAs. It has only three, valued at $135.47 million. 

More investors are increasingly looking into RWAs as a way to diversify their portfolios and interact with tokenized versions of real-world assets. RWAs cover tangible assets like real estate, commodities, and infrastructure. These assets usually have different risk profiles relative to traditional financial assets.

Some RWAs can help manage risk by reducing exposure to market volatility. They are also known to have low correlation with stocks and bonds, which makes them some sort of buffer against market downturns.

Tokenized versions of commodities like gold can also be used as shields against inflation and currency devaluation. Many of them also generate regular income, such as rental income from real estate or dividends from infrastructure projects. 

Cryptopolitan Academy: Are You Making These Web3 Resume Mistakes? - Find Out Here