RWA: The Next Explosive Area of Decentralized Finance after Ethereum
Regulatory Catalysis & Market Insights
THE RECENT PASSAGE OF THE GENIUS BILL HAS REIGNITED A LOT OF ATTENTION TO THE (RWA) OF REAL-WORLD ASSETS. In addition to significant advances in stablecoin regulations, there have been a number of important breakthroughs in the RWA space: Kraken's launch of tokenized stocks and ETFs, Robinhood's proposal to the SEC to give token assets the same status as traditional assets, and Centrifuge's $400 million decentralized JTRSY fund on Solana.
Against the backdrop of unprecedented market attention and the imminent wider adoption of traditional finance, it is particularly important to have an in-depth analysis of the current RWA landscape, especially the strategic position of leading platforms such as Ethereum. Ethereum-based RWA has shown an astonishing month-on-month growth rate, often maintaining double-digit high growth; The growth rate in 2025 will be more significant than that in 2024. Another key factor driving this momentum is the "Ethereumization" (Etherealize) as a catalyst for regulatory development, and the Ethereum Foundation's strategic focus on RWA. This article will take a deep dive into the evolution of RWA on Ethereum and its Layer-2 network.
Data Analysis: Ethereum RWA Growth Overview
The data clearly shows that Ethereum's RWA value has entered a clear growth cycle. Looking at the total value trend of Ethereum's non-stablecoin RWA, its long-term trajectory is striking - it has remained in the range of $1 billion to $2 billion for many years until it enters a stage of rapid growth in April 2024. This growth momentum will continue to accelerate in 2025. The core driver is BlackRock's BUIDL fund, which is now worth $2.7 billion. Since March 2025, BUIDL has shown parabolic growth, strongly driving the overall expansion of the Ethereum RWA ecosystem.
By asset class (excluding stablecoins), the market capitalization of real-world assets on Ethereum is highly concentrated in two main categories: Treasury bond project (75.9% ) and commodities ( dominated by gold, 20.3% ). In contrast, in the composition of the RWA market capitalization of the entire crypto market, private credit accounts for the highest (57.4% ), followed by treasury bond projects (30.9% ).
Further focus on the leading assets of Ethereum RWA, BUIDL has established a dominant position. A year ago, the scale of BUIDL was comparable to products like PAXG and XAUT, but it has now significantly surpassed them. Although the composition of the top ten projects remains basically stable, the growth rate of government bond products significantly outpaces that of gold-related products, and market share continues to expand.
From the perspective of protocols, the current dominants are mainly stablecoin issuers - the top four protocols are Tether, Circle, MakerDAO and Ethena. It is worth noting that the total value of the securitization protocol Securitize has significantly surpassed that of some stablecoin projects such as FDUSD and USDC, and has jumped to the forefront. Other top 10 securities agreements include Ondo and Superstate.
Focusing on the monthly data from early 2024 to now, the growth wave began in April 2024, achieving an astonishing increase of 26.6% that month—contributing one quarter of the total increment of Ethereum RWA for that month. This momentum continued into the following months, although there was a slight slowdown during the period from August to December 2024, the network still maintained an increment of about 20 million USD/month (month-on-month growth rate of about 5%, annualized over 60%).
In January 2025, the growth rate exploded again, soaring 33.2% month-on-month. After a brief correction in February, Ethereum maintained double-digit growth for four consecutive months, with month-on-month growth exceeding the 20% mark in April and May.
With the rapid rise of BUIDL as the largest project in the Ethereum RWA ecosystem by market capitalization, its growth path deserves careful study. The month-on-month growth data shows that as of March 2025, the indicator remained relatively stable, and then showed an explosive jump in March. The latest May data shows that although the ultra-fast growth trend has slowed down slightly, there is still an increase of 210 million US dollars, an increase of 8.38% month-on-month.
BUIDL's explosive growth stems from a number of factors. Primarily driven by institutional demand, product competitiveness is a key driver: 24/7 operations, faster settlements, and high yields within a compliance framework. It's worth noting that DeFi integrations are realizing synergies and unlocking more utility, such as Ethena Labs' USDtb product, which has 90% of its reserves backed by BUIDL. At the same time, the recognition of BUIDL as a high-quality collateral continues to grow, and the launch of sBUIDL by Securitize further unlocks the DeFi integration scenario.
BUIDL's asset distribution is highly concentrated: about 93% is concentrated on the Ethereum mainnet. At the same time, with the continuous expansion of assets under management, BUIDL's monthly dividends have reached a new high, reaching US$4.17 million in March 2025 and soaring to US$7.9 million in May.
Stablecoin development
In view of the structural impact that the GENIUS Act will have on the regulatory framework of stablecoins, it is important to systematically examine the development trajectory of the Ethereum stablecoin market. Since 2024, the total market capitalization of the sector has continued to show a steady upward trend, and although the growth rate is slightly lower than that of other RWA segments, it still maintains a resilient monthly growth rhythm.
Of the $500 million ( for small-scale )<projects, most of them experienced continued contraction in early 2024. However, towards the end of 2024, the market value of most projects continues to rise, and the market value of GHO, M, and UDO continues to grow. At the same time, a number of new stablecoin projects have emerged across the market value of 50M, the Ethereum stablecoin ecosystem projects are more diverse, and the small-capitalization projects will continue to prosper since 2025.
Medium-sized projects (5-5 billion US dollars ) in 2024 only FDUSD and FRAX; BUSD plummeted from US$1 billion in January 2024 to less than US$500 million in March 2024 due to the termination of the offering. However, in 2025, USD0 and PYUSD will both break through the $500 million threshold, and medium-sized stablecoins will be more diversified.
The top stablecoin (> $5 billion ) continues to be dominated by USDT and USDC: USDT will stabilize at $40 billion for most of 2024, jump to $70 billion in early December, and then gradually stabilize until the recent market value has declined; USDC has steadily grown from $22 billion in January 2024 to $38 billion in May 2025. At the beginning of 2025, USDS and USDe both exceeded $5 billion, but USDT and USDC are still far ahead in terms of market share.
USDT and USDC occupy an absolute dominant position, which directly affects the entire stablecoin ecosystem. The growth in November 2024 is particularly noteworthy: USDT surged by 30.16% month-on-month, and USDC achieved a 16.31% growth. The spike was followed by months of growth, with USDC growing more solidly in subsequent months, with monthly growth of more than 5%.
However, there has been a clear shift in market momentum recently – USDT on the Ethereum chain has stagnated for the past four months, and USDC has declined for the first time after months of growth in May 2025. This phenomenon may signal that the market is moving towards a new phase of the cycle.
Layer-2 ecosystem
In the broader RWA ecological landscape, Ethereum maintains an absolute dominant position with a 59.23% market share excluding stablecoins (, but still faces key challenges.
![RWA: After DeFi, the next breakout point for Ethereum])025/6/4/images/99b27140ddf0a795b67bd37e7757c00e.png(
Notably, zkSync jumped to second place with the Tradable project's single driver, while Stellar relied entirely on the Franklin Templeton BENJI Fund ) $455.9 million ( occupying third place. Although the RWA book data of the two public chains is impressive, its structural shortcomings cannot be ignored: lack of asset diversity and dependence on a single project.
![RWA: After DeFi, the next breakout point for Ethereum])025/6/4/images/835880587cdec11b74153115cc46e265.png(
As zkSync and Stellar demonstrate, most L2 networks are currently facing the challenge of insufficient ecosystem diversity - their RWA market value is highly dependent on 1-2 core projects. For example, Arbitrum: Of the total market capitalization of US$256 million, BENJI contributed US$111.9 million ) accounting for 43.7% (, and Spiko accounted for US$93.5 million ) accounting for 36.5% (, and the two together monopolized more than eighty percent of the market value; Polygon also shows a similar distribution pattern, with core market capitalization sources concentrated in Spiko and Mercado Bitcoin.
![RWA: The Next Explosive Point of Ethereum After Decentralized Finance])025/6/4/images/65c9afc0620966f33c33f7d1ef9d2347.png(
Expanding the horizon to the entire L2 ecosystem, the RWA value and market share of each network are significantly differentiated. Except for zkSync, only Polygon and Arbitrum form a substantial scale effect, and the rest of the L2 are still in the early stage of development. The success of Polygon and Arbitrum is highly dependent on a single driver, Spiko, which contributes about one-third of the total RWA value in both networks.
![RWA: After DeFi, the Next Explosion Point of Ethereum])025/6/4/images/bcb64b78aa0d9c3820e7b7d1b828cc0b.png(
Looking at the evolution of the overall RWA market value of Layer-2 networks, its growth cycle is not completely synchronized with that of Layer-1: it will not start to grow in mid-2024. zkSync's access to Tradable has resulted in $2 billion market cap growth. But even when this impact is taken out of the equation, the L2 growth trend is still here to stay, with double-digit quarter-over-quarter growth for L2 networks since September 2024. In summary, the end of 2024 marks a turning point in the development of L2 ecological RWA: it has entered a strong growth cycle.
! [RWA: After DeFi, Ethereum's next flashpoint])025/6/4/images/1747f34df49e7f6e2f6ee511eabc99cd.png(
Etherealize: Ethereum RWA New Engine
As a key force driving the adoption of Ethereum RWA, Etherealize was born out of a deep insight into the bottleneck of the industry: when protocol layer breakthroughs fail to translate effectively into physical applications, institutional engagement often stalls. To this end, Etherealize systematically bridges the gap between technological breakthroughs and practical implementation by developing customized tools, building a network of strategic partnerships, and being deeply involved in policymaking.
![RWA: The Next Breakthrough Point for Ethereum After DeFi])025/6/4/images/f717b8913b730093bc50679def666923.png(
At present, Etherealize mainly promotes the popularization and application of Ethereum RWA through market education and content dissemination, as well as data panel tools. On the one hand, the team has written and published a number of in-depth articles, and participated in interviews with many well-known podcasts and media. On the other hand, Etherealize actively communicates with regulators, and has successfully held a number of seminars and symposia on digital asset compliance and regulatory issues, and continues to put forward constructive solutions on how to standardize and promote the RWA process.
Recently, Etherealize founder Vivek Raman was invited to testify before the House Financial Services Committee on "American Innovation and the Future of Digital Assets," further expanding its influence with regulators.
![RWA: The Next Explosive Point of Ethereum After Decentralized Finance])025/6/4/images/116f5f73df7a4f346e404010f83cf4f5.png(
In the upcoming roadmap, the focus for Q2 2025 is to release an institution-grade SDK, which will integrate hosting interfaces, compliance processes, and gas optimization modules into one package, helping banks and asset management institutions to build a secure and auditable issuance process, significantly lowering the entry barrier for traditional financial institutions to participate in Ethereum RWA.
The third quarter will see the launch of a pilot Noir-based enterprise wallet to ensure enterprise-grade privacy protection. In the fourth quarter, we set our sights on the international market, and established cooperation with Singapore Digital Port and the Swiss Crypto Valley Association to carry out localized product functions and compliance docking according to the regulatory environment and market demand in Asia Pacific and Europe.
At the same time, to reduce friction between different Layer-2 networks, the team will lead the push for Rollup standardization and build a unified cross-link interface to achieve free flow of assets and enhance interoperability.
![RWA: The Next Explosion Point of Ethereum After DeFi])025/6/4/images/344ced6d0c59157f29ddc0c5abb2c64b.png(
Ethereum RWA Strategic Moat
) First-mover advantage
The decision-making process of traditional financial institutions is different from that of DeFi: regulatory scrutiny, pilot verification, and proof-of-concept ###PoC( significantly extend the deployment cycle. In the early stage of the project, the institution will adopt a cautious strategy and start expansion after the pilot results are verified. Although Ethereum's head project BUIDL dominates, it still ushered in explosive growth after nearly a year of accumulation. Ethereum's core strength lies in its ecological first-mover status - long before the rise of the RWA wave, it had completed experimental cooperation with a number of top financial institutions.
![RWA: After DeFi, the next breakout point for Ethereum])025/6/4/images/8baa00e374f8a23e11e88b8815ee4274.png(
) Ecological accumulation
In addition to institutional collaboration, the maturity of the RWA ecosystem requires long-term accumulation. Ethereum maintains its leading position:
Breadth: Covers diverse asset issuers and protocol architectures
Depth: The market value of many projects has exceeded the order of one billion US dollars, forming a scale effect
The integration of traditional finance and DeFi continues to deepen. Most RWA projects prioritize the deployment of the Ethereum mainnet and directly use the Ethereum ecosystem's mature decentralized lending, market making, and derivatives protocols to improve capital efficiency. Recent examples include Ethena's adoption of BUIDL as a 90% reserve asset for the USDtb stablecoin. The GENIUS Act's policy of forcing stablecoin reserves to favor U.S. Treasuries is promoting the integration of U.S. Treasury bonds, on-chain Treasury products, and stablecoin protocols.
![RWA: The Next Explosive Point of Ethereum After DeFi]###025/6/4/images/a71e466e91f7638e3a564f10d83860e5.png(
Ethereum maintains an advantage in RWA liquidity: the number of active addresses, variety of tokens, and liquidity depth are all leading. Although the Layer 2 ecosystem has uncertainties in collaboration mechanisms, it remains a core path for expansion.
![RWA: The Next Explosion Point for Ethereum After DeFi])025/6/4/images/e3937e4fff5b23edfed28fbc215bfd2f.png(
) Security Advantages
Security is the cornerstone of the RWA ecosystem, and the maturity of smart contract technology is the key. As the logic of RWA projects becomes more complex, the requirements for smart contracts are also higher. In May 2025, the Cetus protocol on the Sui chain was hacked ### losing $223 million in (, exposing the deadly risk of oracle manipulation and contract vulnerabilities. In contrast, Ethereum's core strengths lie in a more decentralized architecture, a track record of reliable operation, and a thriving developer ecosystem.
![RWA: After DeFi, the next breakout point for Ethereum])025/6/4/images/8750dd311089ecc43f07ea80085fc870.png(
) Technology Evolution
The Ethereum technology roadmap will accelerate the development of RWA. First, it will enhance L1 performance to bridge the core gap with high-performance public chains. Secondly, it will promote L2 interoperability and focus on the application layer to facilitate the connection between traditional finance and on-chain RWA.
At the same time, Ethereum's privacy roadmap strengthens security standards and privacy protection mechanisms ###, such as integrating privacy tools into mainstream wallets and simplifying anti-censorship transaction processes, etc. (, to provide security for RWA transactions and build a confidentiality system for assets that meets institutional requirements.
![RWA: After DeFi, the next breakout point of Ethereum])025/6/4/images/f10cf182e73687dfaa5bb8c9cb38ac57.png(
"Genius Act": A Double-Edged Sword of Regulation
The new stablecoin regulatory system not only strengthens centralized control, but also injects regulatory certainty into the market. Currently, Article 4)6( of the Act does not explicitly allow stablecoin issuers to pay interest to holders, and although the market may spawn alternatives, this issue remains uncertain. At the same time, the bill requires stablecoin reserves to be 1:1 of highly liquid safe assets such as U.S. dollars or U.S. Treasuries.
![RWA: The Next Explosion Point for Ethereum After DeFi])025/6/4/images/2d9e7deaf57d5085f433d615d7ecbb57.png(
The reserves of the USDC stablecoin are almost entirely allocated to U.S. Treasury bonds, in compliance with the new regulations. However, other mainstream issuers must completely restructure their reserve frameworks, or they may be forced to exit the U.S. market. This move will directly affect certain designs such as algorithmic stablecoins and Delta Neutral stablecoins.
By anchoring collateral to U.S. sovereign credit, regulators gain greater intervening capacity and simultaneously drive ) demand for Treasuries (, but loopholes in legislation could create new systemic risks.
The positive aspect is that the clearly defined compliance boundaries in the bill may accelerate institutional entry: the regulatory certainty that banks and asset management institutions have long sought is met. More large companies and institutions will be allowed to issue stablecoins.
![RWA: The Next Breakthrough Point of Ethereum After DeFi])025/6/4/images/3ea4fa3853bcfbe62dc9ff7acf6c3dc9.png(
) Ethereum's Resilience: A Diverse Ecosystem
The resilience of the Ethereum stablecoin ecosystem stems from its diversity. Since the beginning of 2025, the market value of a number of stablecoin issuers has increased significantly, and many new stablecoin projects have emerged, including rich design dimensions: multiple collateral structures, income strategies, and governance models. The GENIUS Act, which imposes a 1:1 reserve requirement on Treasury bonds, puts compliance pressure on most projects, forcing them to choose between adjusting their reserve structure or temporarily withdrawing from the U.S. market.
The resilience of the Ethereum ecosystem sets it apart from public chains dominated by a handful of stablecoin/RWA projects – which reduces the risk of homogenization after the project is generally regulated. The diversified structure forms a natural risk isolation mechanism: even if some stablecoins adjust their strategies due to compliance requirements, there will still be projects that continue to promote innovation and maintain decentralized cores.
![RWA: After DeFi, the next breakout point of Ethereum]###025/6/4/images/5c5abe3d8f485cdada795e310a7839b5.png(
Conclusion
Ethereum's RWA ecosystem has seen explosive growth over the past few months. BUIDL is the strongest driver of RWA development in recent times, while a large number of treasury bond projects have also shown strong growth momentum. Behind the scale expansion, treasury bond projects have increasingly shown a trend of integrating with Ethereum's existing DeFi and RWA ecosystems, such as BUIDL as collateral for lending or stablecoin projects.
! [RWA: After DeFi, Ethereum's next flashpoint])025/6/4/images/f1717060fbc34d7ec1a2e235c11e1579.png(
Ethereum still has a significant advantage in the RWA space. Whether it is the first-mover time advantage, security, deep ecological precipitation, grand technology roadmap update, or the strong leadership of BUIDL, the diversification of Layer 2 and the deep empowerment of Etherealize, these factors together build the core barriers of Ethereum in the wave of traditional financial chains.
With the promotion of the Genius Act, the integration of US dollar credit into the on-chain world is accelerating. This not only brings a larger influx of funds, creating more revenue and growth opportunities, but also poses a challenge: it makes the underlying support of the Ethereum financial system more biased towards fiat currency ) US dollar (, thereby introducing fiat currency credit risk and making the on-chain settlement system possible to become an extension of the US dollar hegemony; The on-chain world is no longer an independent parallel financial system. In the context of explosive growth, there are also hidden concerns, the core of which lies in Ethereum's exploration of its own positioning - whether it supports deep binding with the dollar system.
The content is for reference only, not a solicitation or offer. No investment, tax, or legal advice provided. See Disclaimer for more risks disclosure.
RWA market capitalization explodes: Ethereum dominates the digitalization track of real assets
RWA: The Next Explosive Area of Decentralized Finance after Ethereum
Regulatory Catalysis & Market Insights
THE RECENT PASSAGE OF THE GENIUS BILL HAS REIGNITED A LOT OF ATTENTION TO THE (RWA) OF REAL-WORLD ASSETS. In addition to significant advances in stablecoin regulations, there have been a number of important breakthroughs in the RWA space: Kraken's launch of tokenized stocks and ETFs, Robinhood's proposal to the SEC to give token assets the same status as traditional assets, and Centrifuge's $400 million decentralized JTRSY fund on Solana.
Against the backdrop of unprecedented market attention and the imminent wider adoption of traditional finance, it is particularly important to have an in-depth analysis of the current RWA landscape, especially the strategic position of leading platforms such as Ethereum. Ethereum-based RWA has shown an astonishing month-on-month growth rate, often maintaining double-digit high growth; The growth rate in 2025 will be more significant than that in 2024. Another key factor driving this momentum is the "Ethereumization" (Etherealize) as a catalyst for regulatory development, and the Ethereum Foundation's strategic focus on RWA. This article will take a deep dive into the evolution of RWA on Ethereum and its Layer-2 network.
Data Analysis: Ethereum RWA Growth Overview
The data clearly shows that Ethereum's RWA value has entered a clear growth cycle. Looking at the total value trend of Ethereum's non-stablecoin RWA, its long-term trajectory is striking - it has remained in the range of $1 billion to $2 billion for many years until it enters a stage of rapid growth in April 2024. This growth momentum will continue to accelerate in 2025. The core driver is BlackRock's BUIDL fund, which is now worth $2.7 billion. Since March 2025, BUIDL has shown parabolic growth, strongly driving the overall expansion of the Ethereum RWA ecosystem.
! RWA: After DeFi, Ethereum's next flashpoint
By asset class (excluding stablecoins), the market capitalization of real-world assets on Ethereum is highly concentrated in two main categories: Treasury bond project (75.9% ) and commodities ( dominated by gold, 20.3% ). In contrast, in the composition of the RWA market capitalization of the entire crypto market, private credit accounts for the highest (57.4% ), followed by treasury bond projects (30.9% ).
Further focus on the leading assets of Ethereum RWA, BUIDL has established a dominant position. A year ago, the scale of BUIDL was comparable to products like PAXG and XAUT, but it has now significantly surpassed them. Although the composition of the top ten projects remains basically stable, the growth rate of government bond products significantly outpaces that of gold-related products, and market share continues to expand.
From the perspective of protocols, the current dominants are mainly stablecoin issuers - the top four protocols are Tether, Circle, MakerDAO and Ethena. It is worth noting that the total value of the securitization protocol Securitize has significantly surpassed that of some stablecoin projects such as FDUSD and USDC, and has jumped to the forefront. Other top 10 securities agreements include Ondo and Superstate.
! RWA: After DeFi, Ethereum's next flashpoint
Focusing on the monthly data from early 2024 to now, the growth wave began in April 2024, achieving an astonishing increase of 26.6% that month—contributing one quarter of the total increment of Ethereum RWA for that month. This momentum continued into the following months, although there was a slight slowdown during the period from August to December 2024, the network still maintained an increment of about 20 million USD/month (month-on-month growth rate of about 5%, annualized over 60%).
In January 2025, the growth rate exploded again, soaring 33.2% month-on-month. After a brief correction in February, Ethereum maintained double-digit growth for four consecutive months, with month-on-month growth exceeding the 20% mark in April and May.
! RWA: After DeFi, Ethereum's next flashpoint
BUIDL Rise
With the rapid rise of BUIDL as the largest project in the Ethereum RWA ecosystem by market capitalization, its growth path deserves careful study. The month-on-month growth data shows that as of March 2025, the indicator remained relatively stable, and then showed an explosive jump in March. The latest May data shows that although the ultra-fast growth trend has slowed down slightly, there is still an increase of 210 million US dollars, an increase of 8.38% month-on-month.
! RWA: After DeFi, Ethereum's next flashpoint
BUIDL's explosive growth stems from a number of factors. Primarily driven by institutional demand, product competitiveness is a key driver: 24/7 operations, faster settlements, and high yields within a compliance framework. It's worth noting that DeFi integrations are realizing synergies and unlocking more utility, such as Ethena Labs' USDtb product, which has 90% of its reserves backed by BUIDL. At the same time, the recognition of BUIDL as a high-quality collateral continues to grow, and the launch of sBUIDL by Securitize further unlocks the DeFi integration scenario.
BUIDL's asset distribution is highly concentrated: about 93% is concentrated on the Ethereum mainnet. At the same time, with the continuous expansion of assets under management, BUIDL's monthly dividends have reached a new high, reaching US$4.17 million in March 2025 and soaring to US$7.9 million in May.
Stablecoin development
In view of the structural impact that the GENIUS Act will have on the regulatory framework of stablecoins, it is important to systematically examine the development trajectory of the Ethereum stablecoin market. Since 2024, the total market capitalization of the sector has continued to show a steady upward trend, and although the growth rate is slightly lower than that of other RWA segments, it still maintains a resilient monthly growth rhythm.
Of the $500 million ( for small-scale )<projects, most of them experienced continued contraction in early 2024. However, towards the end of 2024, the market value of most projects continues to rise, and the market value of GHO, M, and UDO continues to grow. At the same time, a number of new stablecoin projects have emerged across the market value of 50M, the Ethereum stablecoin ecosystem projects are more diverse, and the small-capitalization projects will continue to prosper since 2025.
Medium-sized projects (5-5 billion US dollars ) in 2024 only FDUSD and FRAX; BUSD plummeted from US$1 billion in January 2024 to less than US$500 million in March 2024 due to the termination of the offering. However, in 2025, USD0 and PYUSD will both break through the $500 million threshold, and medium-sized stablecoins will be more diversified.
The top stablecoin (> $5 billion ) continues to be dominated by USDT and USDC: USDT will stabilize at $40 billion for most of 2024, jump to $70 billion in early December, and then gradually stabilize until the recent market value has declined; USDC has steadily grown from $22 billion in January 2024 to $38 billion in May 2025. At the beginning of 2025, USDS and USDe both exceeded $5 billion, but USDT and USDC are still far ahead in terms of market share.
USDT and USDC occupy an absolute dominant position, which directly affects the entire stablecoin ecosystem. The growth in November 2024 is particularly noteworthy: USDT surged by 30.16% month-on-month, and USDC achieved a 16.31% growth. The spike was followed by months of growth, with USDC growing more solidly in subsequent months, with monthly growth of more than 5%.
However, there has been a clear shift in market momentum recently – USDT on the Ethereum chain has stagnated for the past four months, and USDC has declined for the first time after months of growth in May 2025. This phenomenon may signal that the market is moving towards a new phase of the cycle.
Layer-2 ecosystem
In the broader RWA ecological landscape, Ethereum maintains an absolute dominant position with a 59.23% market share excluding stablecoins (, but still faces key challenges.
![RWA: After DeFi, the next breakout point for Ethereum])025/6/4/images/99b27140ddf0a795b67bd37e7757c00e.png(
Notably, zkSync jumped to second place with the Tradable project's single driver, while Stellar relied entirely on the Franklin Templeton BENJI Fund ) $455.9 million ( occupying third place. Although the RWA book data of the two public chains is impressive, its structural shortcomings cannot be ignored: lack of asset diversity and dependence on a single project.
![RWA: After DeFi, the next breakout point for Ethereum])025/6/4/images/835880587cdec11b74153115cc46e265.png(
As zkSync and Stellar demonstrate, most L2 networks are currently facing the challenge of insufficient ecosystem diversity - their RWA market value is highly dependent on 1-2 core projects. For example, Arbitrum: Of the total market capitalization of US$256 million, BENJI contributed US$111.9 million ) accounting for 43.7% (, and Spiko accounted for US$93.5 million ) accounting for 36.5% (, and the two together monopolized more than eighty percent of the market value; Polygon also shows a similar distribution pattern, with core market capitalization sources concentrated in Spiko and Mercado Bitcoin.
![RWA: The Next Explosive Point of Ethereum After Decentralized Finance])025/6/4/images/65c9afc0620966f33c33f7d1ef9d2347.png(
Expanding the horizon to the entire L2 ecosystem, the RWA value and market share of each network are significantly differentiated. Except for zkSync, only Polygon and Arbitrum form a substantial scale effect, and the rest of the L2 are still in the early stage of development. The success of Polygon and Arbitrum is highly dependent on a single driver, Spiko, which contributes about one-third of the total RWA value in both networks.
![RWA: After DeFi, the Next Explosion Point of Ethereum])025/6/4/images/bcb64b78aa0d9c3820e7b7d1b828cc0b.png(
Looking at the evolution of the overall RWA market value of Layer-2 networks, its growth cycle is not completely synchronized with that of Layer-1: it will not start to grow in mid-2024. zkSync's access to Tradable has resulted in $2 billion market cap growth. But even when this impact is taken out of the equation, the L2 growth trend is still here to stay, with double-digit quarter-over-quarter growth for L2 networks since September 2024. In summary, the end of 2024 marks a turning point in the development of L2 ecological RWA: it has entered a strong growth cycle.
! [RWA: After DeFi, Ethereum's next flashpoint])025/6/4/images/1747f34df49e7f6e2f6ee511eabc99cd.png(
Etherealize: Ethereum RWA New Engine
As a key force driving the adoption of Ethereum RWA, Etherealize was born out of a deep insight into the bottleneck of the industry: when protocol layer breakthroughs fail to translate effectively into physical applications, institutional engagement often stalls. To this end, Etherealize systematically bridges the gap between technological breakthroughs and practical implementation by developing customized tools, building a network of strategic partnerships, and being deeply involved in policymaking.
![RWA: The Next Breakthrough Point for Ethereum After DeFi])025/6/4/images/f717b8913b730093bc50679def666923.png(
At present, Etherealize mainly promotes the popularization and application of Ethereum RWA through market education and content dissemination, as well as data panel tools. On the one hand, the team has written and published a number of in-depth articles, and participated in interviews with many well-known podcasts and media. On the other hand, Etherealize actively communicates with regulators, and has successfully held a number of seminars and symposia on digital asset compliance and regulatory issues, and continues to put forward constructive solutions on how to standardize and promote the RWA process.
Recently, Etherealize founder Vivek Raman was invited to testify before the House Financial Services Committee on "American Innovation and the Future of Digital Assets," further expanding its influence with regulators.
![RWA: The Next Explosive Point of Ethereum After Decentralized Finance])025/6/4/images/116f5f73df7a4f346e404010f83cf4f5.png(
In the upcoming roadmap, the focus for Q2 2025 is to release an institution-grade SDK, which will integrate hosting interfaces, compliance processes, and gas optimization modules into one package, helping banks and asset management institutions to build a secure and auditable issuance process, significantly lowering the entry barrier for traditional financial institutions to participate in Ethereum RWA.
The third quarter will see the launch of a pilot Noir-based enterprise wallet to ensure enterprise-grade privacy protection. In the fourth quarter, we set our sights on the international market, and established cooperation with Singapore Digital Port and the Swiss Crypto Valley Association to carry out localized product functions and compliance docking according to the regulatory environment and market demand in Asia Pacific and Europe.
At the same time, to reduce friction between different Layer-2 networks, the team will lead the push for Rollup standardization and build a unified cross-link interface to achieve free flow of assets and enhance interoperability.
![RWA: The Next Explosion Point of Ethereum After DeFi])025/6/4/images/344ced6d0c59157f29ddc0c5abb2c64b.png(
Ethereum RWA Strategic Moat
) First-mover advantage
The decision-making process of traditional financial institutions is different from that of DeFi: regulatory scrutiny, pilot verification, and proof-of-concept ###PoC( significantly extend the deployment cycle. In the early stage of the project, the institution will adopt a cautious strategy and start expansion after the pilot results are verified. Although Ethereum's head project BUIDL dominates, it still ushered in explosive growth after nearly a year of accumulation. Ethereum's core strength lies in its ecological first-mover status - long before the rise of the RWA wave, it had completed experimental cooperation with a number of top financial institutions.
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) Ecological accumulation
In addition to institutional collaboration, the maturity of the RWA ecosystem requires long-term accumulation. Ethereum maintains its leading position:
The integration of traditional finance and DeFi continues to deepen. Most RWA projects prioritize the deployment of the Ethereum mainnet and directly use the Ethereum ecosystem's mature decentralized lending, market making, and derivatives protocols to improve capital efficiency. Recent examples include Ethena's adoption of BUIDL as a 90% reserve asset for the USDtb stablecoin. The GENIUS Act's policy of forcing stablecoin reserves to favor U.S. Treasuries is promoting the integration of U.S. Treasury bonds, on-chain Treasury products, and stablecoin protocols.
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Ethereum maintains an advantage in RWA liquidity: the number of active addresses, variety of tokens, and liquidity depth are all leading. Although the Layer 2 ecosystem has uncertainties in collaboration mechanisms, it remains a core path for expansion.
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) Security Advantages
Security is the cornerstone of the RWA ecosystem, and the maturity of smart contract technology is the key. As the logic of RWA projects becomes more complex, the requirements for smart contracts are also higher. In May 2025, the Cetus protocol on the Sui chain was hacked ### losing $223 million in (, exposing the deadly risk of oracle manipulation and contract vulnerabilities. In contrast, Ethereum's core strengths lie in a more decentralized architecture, a track record of reliable operation, and a thriving developer ecosystem.
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) Technology Evolution
The Ethereum technology roadmap will accelerate the development of RWA. First, it will enhance L1 performance to bridge the core gap with high-performance public chains. Secondly, it will promote L2 interoperability and focus on the application layer to facilitate the connection between traditional finance and on-chain RWA.
At the same time, Ethereum's privacy roadmap strengthens security standards and privacy protection mechanisms ###, such as integrating privacy tools into mainstream wallets and simplifying anti-censorship transaction processes, etc. (, to provide security for RWA transactions and build a confidentiality system for assets that meets institutional requirements.
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"Genius Act": A Double-Edged Sword of Regulation
The new stablecoin regulatory system not only strengthens centralized control, but also injects regulatory certainty into the market. Currently, Article 4)6( of the Act does not explicitly allow stablecoin issuers to pay interest to holders, and although the market may spawn alternatives, this issue remains uncertain. At the same time, the bill requires stablecoin reserves to be 1:1 of highly liquid safe assets such as U.S. dollars or U.S. Treasuries.
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The reserves of the USDC stablecoin are almost entirely allocated to U.S. Treasury bonds, in compliance with the new regulations. However, other mainstream issuers must completely restructure their reserve frameworks, or they may be forced to exit the U.S. market. This move will directly affect certain designs such as algorithmic stablecoins and Delta Neutral stablecoins.
By anchoring collateral to U.S. sovereign credit, regulators gain greater intervening capacity and simultaneously drive ) demand for Treasuries (, but loopholes in legislation could create new systemic risks.
The positive aspect is that the clearly defined compliance boundaries in the bill may accelerate institutional entry: the regulatory certainty that banks and asset management institutions have long sought is met. More large companies and institutions will be allowed to issue stablecoins.
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) Ethereum's Resilience: A Diverse Ecosystem
The resilience of the Ethereum stablecoin ecosystem stems from its diversity. Since the beginning of 2025, the market value of a number of stablecoin issuers has increased significantly, and many new stablecoin projects have emerged, including rich design dimensions: multiple collateral structures, income strategies, and governance models. The GENIUS Act, which imposes a 1:1 reserve requirement on Treasury bonds, puts compliance pressure on most projects, forcing them to choose between adjusting their reserve structure or temporarily withdrawing from the U.S. market.
The resilience of the Ethereum ecosystem sets it apart from public chains dominated by a handful of stablecoin/RWA projects – which reduces the risk of homogenization after the project is generally regulated. The diversified structure forms a natural risk isolation mechanism: even if some stablecoins adjust their strategies due to compliance requirements, there will still be projects that continue to promote innovation and maintain decentralized cores.
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Conclusion
Ethereum's RWA ecosystem has seen explosive growth over the past few months. BUIDL is the strongest driver of RWA development in recent times, while a large number of treasury bond projects have also shown strong growth momentum. Behind the scale expansion, treasury bond projects have increasingly shown a trend of integrating with Ethereum's existing DeFi and RWA ecosystems, such as BUIDL as collateral for lending or stablecoin projects.
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Ethereum still has a significant advantage in the RWA space. Whether it is the first-mover time advantage, security, deep ecological precipitation, grand technology roadmap update, or the strong leadership of BUIDL, the diversification of Layer 2 and the deep empowerment of Etherealize, these factors together build the core barriers of Ethereum in the wave of traditional financial chains.
With the promotion of the Genius Act, the integration of US dollar credit into the on-chain world is accelerating. This not only brings a larger influx of funds, creating more revenue and growth opportunities, but also poses a challenge: it makes the underlying support of the Ethereum financial system more biased towards fiat currency ) US dollar (, thereby introducing fiat currency credit risk and making the on-chain settlement system possible to become an extension of the US dollar hegemony; The on-chain world is no longer an independent parallel financial system. In the context of explosive growth, there are also hidden concerns, the core of which lies in Ethereum's exploration of its own positioning - whether it supports deep binding with the dollar system.
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