Cobo | The DeepSeek moment of RWA is approaching: a comprehensive analysis of development trends, implementation paths, and best practices for institutions.
This article is organized based on the speech titled "Real World Asset Practices in an Uncertain World" given by Cobo Lily Z. King at the RWA event held at JunHe Law Offices in Hong Kong on June 10, 2025, for several brokerage fund stablecoin institutions and family offices.
"Every asset—every stock, bond, and fund—can be tokenized, which will bring about an investment revolution." This is a quote from Larry Fink, Chairman and CEO of BlackRock. Larry Fink's vision that everything can be tokenized not only depicts a technological possibility but also heralds a profound transformation in the financial sector. When and where Larry Fink said this quote is more important than the quote itself. This statement appeared in BlackRock's annual letter sent to all investors on March 31 of this year. However, in last year's annual letter from BlackRock, terms like stablecoin, RWA, tokenization, and digital assets, which are now the most popular in the market, were not mentioned at all; the only thing related to digital assets was the BTC ETF. This year's annual letter from BlackRock passionately advocates for how tokenization can bring about financial democratization.
Why are so many big names, including Larry Fink, choosing this moment to discuss Real World Assets (RWA)? Some say it's because DeFi on-chain yields have dried up, so everyone is looking for returns in the real world. Others say it's because RWA is currently the only hot topic; whoever is associated with it rises, whether it's coins or stocks. There are also those who say that there was a wave of RWA enthusiasm in 2017-2018, and back then it was called ICO, which was a trend. And some say, why analyze so much, if we don't engage with RWA, we will soon be out of work!
We may still need to understand the ins and outs of this RWA trend in order to make the right choices in the next 6-12 months, allowing RWA to truly take off in Asia and secure a place in the upcoming global competition.
Today, the world is undergoing a significant change in the macro landscape. For the first time in decades, we find ourselves in a world filled with geopolitical uncertainty, trade wars, capital controls, and a fragmented, even weaponized, global financial system. Although the US dollar remains strong, countries are seeking to hedge against risks, and cross-border capital flows are increasingly subject to stricter controls.
In such a situation, it is only natural that global capital will look for faster, cheaper, and more open channels for flow. At the same time, digital asset-related policies are also catching up. In the United States, both parties are pushing for stablecoins and tokenization policy frameworks, and tokenization is no longer a niche experiment in Asia – digital assets have risen to become a national strategy. Finally, the technical support level is gradually maturing. Over the past 12 to 18 months, we've seen tremendous improvements: near-zero transaction fees on Tron, Solana, Base, and various Layer 2 chains, sub-second final confirmation times for stablecoin on-chain transactions, and rapid improvements in the digital wallet user experience – such as abstracted gas fees, one-click approvals, and institutional-grade banking experience for escrow services.
So, why is Larry Fink now mentioning RWA? It is not because the hype cycle has arrived, but because the world needs it more than ever before—a way and vision to efficiently, compliantly, and globally integrate traditional finance into the future of finance.
In Larry Fink's view, Wall Street needs to reduce costs and increase efficiency. Simply put, Real World Assets (RWA) can make the market faster, more streamlined, and more global—without touching existing rules. Wall Street is not about crypto for the sake of crypto, but rather about improving the infrastructure of the existing capital markets.
First is the efficiency issue. The settlement cycle of traditional finance such as bonds and private credit is slow and expensive, with cumbersome operational processes. In contrast, after RWA is on-chain, it has achieved:
Instant settlement - T+0, rather than T+2 or even longer.
24/7 liquidity - no market closing time and no time zone restrictions.
Built-in auditability - the ledger is real-time and publicly transparent.
Large institutions have recognized the potential for cost reduction and efficiency improvement and have acted swiftly. Major institutions, including BlackRock and Franklin Templeton, have launched sizable tokenized government bonds on the blockchain, which can be settled on-chain and pay daily yields via smart contracts. These are no longer experiments—they are a new type of financial infrastructure that is operational.
Secondly, there is the issue of reach. Tokenized assets can reach investors that traditional channels cannot cover—especially in emerging markets or non-traditional investor groups. For example:
The tokenized government bonds launched by Ondo, Matrixdock, and Plume are being purchased by DAOs, cryptocurrency treasuries, and stablecoin holders in Asia, Latin America, and Africa—these groups' KYC is something traditional brokers may never be able to reach for these stable-yielding assets with strong credit.
Some real estate tokenization projects in the UAE and the United States have achieved fragmented ownership and global distribution limited by compliance thresholds, which was simply not feasible before tokenization.
RWA not only reduces friction but also expands the market.
Finally, there is programmability. This is fundamentally where tokenized assets become more powerful, as it allows business logic to be embedded within the assets themselves:
Compliant transfer rules
Embedded Yield Payment
auto-rebalancing
even embedded governance rights
Cantor Fitzgerald (the company whose CEO was the current U.S. Secretary of Commerce and has a very deep relationship with Tether) recently partnered with Maple Finance to launch a $2 billion Bitcoin collateralized lending arrangement – they are using smart contracts to automate parts of the loan structuring and risk monitoring. This signals the beginning of a larger transformation: financial products are not just digital, but also intelligent – they can be traded globally, are designed with built-in compliance, and can be integrated into any digital portfolio instantly.
RWA is gaining momentum, and the specific numbers from the market can tell us whether RWA is still a marginal experiment or has already moved towards the mainstream.
As of June 9, the total value of tokenized real-world assets (RWA) on public blockchains has reached nearly $23.4 billion. This is only part of what can be tracked, with on-chain asset products including US Treasury bonds, corporate credit, real estate, various funds, and even commodities. $23.4 billion accounts for about 10% of the stablecoin market size and 0.7% of the entire Crypto market, ranking 10th or 11th in market capitalization among all tokens.
Further analysis of the data reveals several observations:
💳 The scale of private credit exceeds that of government bonds.
The core product of Figure, with a scale of 12 billion USD (home equity line of credit, investor mortgages, cash-out refinancing), moves institutional-grade home loans "on chain" using the Provenance blockchain (Cosmos) from loan origination to inter-institutional transfer, completing the transfer and settlement of ownership/beneficial rights on-chain. Each loan is minted as a digital eNote and registered in the digital asset registry system to replace MERS registration and manual custody verification, obtaining on-chain identity, which can be instantly sold, pledged, or securitized. 90-95% of Figure's existing loans already exist in the form of on-chain eNotes. This process eliminates paper notes, MERS registration fees, and manual custody verification, reducing friction costs by over 100 basis points per loan and shortening the fund settlement time from weeks to days.
Securitize collaborates with Drift Protocol to bring Apollo's $1 billion diversified credit fund on-chain.
To date, Maple Finance has issued over $2.5 billion in tokenized loans.
Centrifuge is providing support for real-world credit pools to DeFi protocols such as Aave and Maker.
🏦 Tokenized government bonds have become a trend
BlackRock's BUIDL fund: with a total management size of 2.9 billion USD, currently leading the way.
Ondo's scale is 1.3 billion USD, and Franklin Templeton's BENJI fund tokenization scale is approximately 775 million USD.
Matrixdock and Superstate have scaled this category to over 7 billion dollars.
These are not crypto-native experiments, but rather mainstream financial institutions utilizing blockchain as infrastructure to settle and distribute government bonds.
🏢 Commodity futures tokens are an earlier attempt than government bond tokenization, with a certain first-mover advantage.
🏢Funds, including real estate funds, are experiencing strong momentum in RWA.
In the UAE, the MAG Group (one of the largest developers in Dubai), MultiBank (the largest financial derivatives trader), and Mavryk (a blockchain technology company) announced a $3 billion collaboration aimed at putting luxury properties on the blockchain.
Platforms such as RealT and Parcl in the United States are allowing retail investors to purchase fractional shares of income-generating real estate—profits are directly distributed to wallets.
These asset tokens are income-generating, tradable, and legally effective assets. In today's market environment, these assets are particularly attractive—they can generate income, have low volatility, and are now accessible to stablecoin holders, DAOs, and financial executives of fintech companies.
Based on the above analysis, we believe that tokenized RWA is no longer just a concept—it has become a market: real assets, real issuers, real returns, and these numbers are growing exponentially.
Let us take a look at some specific and real-world RWA project cases, particularly the RWA practices in Hong Kong and the Asia region: five representative RWA projects, covering different stages and models from traditional banks to technology companies, from gold to new energy, from pilot to formal operation.
HSBC Gold Token
This is a typical case of traditional banks entering the RWA field.
Key Insight: HSBC has chosen a private blockchain, focusing on retail customers and avoiding the complexities of the secondary market.
Strategic significance: Banks are more concerned with compliance and risk control, rather than maximizing liquidity.
Description of the issue: Traditional financial institutions may initially choose a closed ecosystem when testing the waters.
Langxin Group × Ant Group (New Energy Charging Piles)
This represents China's exploration of RWA in the "new infrastructure" field.
The financing scale of 100 million RMB proves the recognition of institutions for the tokenization of real assets.
Key point: Still in the sandbox phase, indicating that regulation is being advanced cautiously.
Investor composition: domestic and foreign institutions + family offices, showing interest in cross-border capital.
Xiexin Nengke Photovoltaic Power Station RWA
Larger scale: Over 200 million RMB, demonstrating the attractiveness of green energy assets.
ESG Concept: Green energy assets comply with global ESG investment trends
Circulation Design: Still in the design stage, indicating that the tokenization of complex assets requires more technological and legal innovations.
UBS × OSL Tokenized Warrant
The Pilot of International Banks: UBS's Participation as a Swiss Banking Giant is Significant
B2B model: Directed issuance to OSL, focusing on process verification rather than scale
Technical validation: Focus on proving the technical feasibility of tokenized warrants.
Huaxia Fund Hong Kong Digital Currency Fund
The most transparent case: on the Ethereum public chain, the data is fully traceable.
Retail-oriented: 800 address holders, truly aimed at ordinary investors.
Compliance Balance: The Balance Between KYC Requirements and On-Chain Transparency
From the above five projects, we can simply extract a few keywords: private chain, institutional and targeted retail, and pilot non-scale. These projects cover different backgrounds in Hong Kong, mainland China and the world, showing a hundred flowers in full bloom. Specifically, Hong Kong is relatively open and pro-innovation; The mainland project is being promoted cautiously, and the sandbox is piloted; International: Big banks are actively testing the waters. The real challenge for current projects is the liquidity challenge: most projects are facing a lack of liquidity in the secondary market, which is where RWA's current "bottleneck" lies.
Compared to projects in Hong Kong that are still in the experimental stage, we will further observe the five leading RWA projects that are currently operating at scale in the global market, as they represent the best practices in the market today.
BUIDL - BlackRock's flagship product
Leading in scale: $2.9 billion, taking the lead among all tokenized treasury products.
Institutional-oriented: There are only 75 holding addresses, but the monthly trading volume reaches as high as 620 million USD.
Key Insight: On average, each address holds nearly $40 million, demonstrating the significant demand from institutional investors.
Strategic significance: BlackRock has chosen a quality over quantity approach, focusing on serving large institutions.
BENJI - Franklin Templeton's retail experiment
Most interesting data: 577 address holders, but the trading volume in 30 days is only 20 dollars.
Retail-oriented: This is a product truly aimed at ordinary investors.
Liquidity challenge: There is almost no secondary trading, indicating that holders are more likely to "buy and hold"; it is also possible that the holders are not unfamiliar ordinary people, but rather the most familiar ordinary people.
Market Insight: Retail investors may be more concerned about returns rather than liquidity.
OUSG - Institutional Products of Ondo Finance
Balanced Strategy: $690 million in scale, 70 addresses, $14 million in trading volume
Institutional efficiency: Although the scale is not as large as BUIDL, the trading activity is relatively high.
Clear positioning: Focus on accredited investors in the U.S., avoiding the complexities of retail regulation.
USTB - Compliance-driven product
Moderate scale: 640 million USD, 67 addresses
High trading activity: A 30-day trading volume of $63 million demonstrates good liquidity.
Dual Compliance: Targeting U.S. accredited & qualified investors, with the strictest compliance requirements.
USDY - A breakthrough in globalization
The biggest discovery: 15,487 addresses! This is a truly "mass-market" product.
Global strategy: specifically serves non-US investors, avoiding the complexities of US regulation.
Democratized investment: On average, each address holds about $40,000, truly realizing inclusive finance.
By analyzing international projects, several core insights and trends can be drawn: the type of investors determines product design. Institutional products are generally held by only a few large holders, with high prices and low trading frequency; retail products, on the other hand, are mostly held by individual investors, with low prices and a focus on holding; as for global products, they emphasize avoiding regulatory complexity through geographical differentiation.
Based on the current RWA projects in the Hong Kong and international markets, we can draw the following observations:
There is no one-size-fits-all model for every market: institutional and retail markets require completely different product designs;
Regulation is the biggest dividing line: there is a huge difference in product performance between American and non-American investors, with American professional investors having a clear advantage in terms of liquidity.
Liquidity remains a challenge: even the most successful products do not have high activity in the secondary market;
Key to scaling: either go deep (large institutional amounts) or go wide (retail popularization).
The data and analysis above reveal an important reality: successful RWA products need to find their own liquidity and unique product-market fit.
RWA tokenization is easy, but distribution is difficult. Anyone can mint a token that represents a piece of real estate or a U.S. Treasury bond. Getting these tokens into the right hands at scale, compliantly, and consistently – that's the real challenge.
In addition to the leading RWA projects we have seen before, there are actually dozens of tokenized government bond products on the chain now, many of which offer considerable returns, but most of them have an asset under management (AUM) of less than a few million dollars. Why is that? Because they have not been integrated into DeFi protocols, are not listed on regulated exchanges, and institutional buyers cannot easily access them without customized onboarding processes.
The value of tokenized assets directly depends on the convenience of their exit. Currently, apart from a few pools like Maple or Centrifuge, the liquidity in the RWA secondary market is very weak. One reason for this is that RWA does not yet have a market similar to NASDAQ or even a decent bond market. This also leads to a lack of pricing transparency, thereby limiting institutional participation.
Finally, the fragmented regulation of RWA remains a major obstacle. Each jurisdiction has a different view on whether tokens qualify as securities, how they should be custodied, and who can hold them. This is slowing down the cross-border scaling process of RWA, particularly in Asia where this process is especially sluggish.
Therefore, we see that the quality of RWA assets is improving, and the infrastructure is becoming increasingly robust, but the "last mile" has not yet been connected: how to match tokenized assets with appropriate funding to establish liquidity, allowing RWA to truly take effect.
This is the challenge faced by the current RAW industry, and it is also where the biggest opportunity lies.
To solve this liquidity challenge, the real breakthrough lies not only in better infrastructure but also in the alignment between products and markets. It's not as simple as just putting old traditional assets onto a new blockchain track; the core question is: who really needs this asset? If this asset becomes more accessible, which new markets can it serve? If the U.S. stock market trades 24X7 and more brokers can buy and sell digital assets, will there still be demand for tokenized ETFs and U.S. stock trading?
Tokenization can do two very powerful things: first, it can find new demand for existing assets that are stagnant in traditional markets; second, it can create entirely new investable assets and deliver them to investors who have previously never been able to participate.
Reinvigorating demand: RWA's current popularity of Spicy Chicken US Bonds is actually one such case. In traditional financial markets, the U.S. Treasury market is becoming crowded and less attractive. However, in the crypto world and emerging markets, they have a new opportunity: on-chain stablecoin issuers are using tokenized Treasury bills to generate on-chain yields. The blockchain platform, designed specifically for RWA, is already selling U.S. Treasuries directly to retail investors in Africa, giving them access to dollar-denominated assets with carried income that have never been offered by local banks. In this case, tokenization isn't just about digitizing assets – it's also matching assets to a global, underserved audience that craves security and profit.
Innovative new investable assets: When tokenization creates new assets, this presents a more exciting opportunity.
Case 1: Take luxury real estate in Dubai as an example. Dubai's real estate growth over the past few years has impressed many overseas investors. But how many investors can actually enter the market? First of all, is the investor going to fly to Dubai? Secondly, you need a reliable real estate agent. But sorry, they don't show up during the day. Traditionally, this market has been closed – opaque, with high barriers, and difficult access for foreigners. Now, through tokenization, projects like the $3 billion MAG are opening up fractional ownership of high-end properties to buyers around the world – and equipped with compliance, yield, and liquidity pathways. Under this model, is it possible for Shanghainese to recreate the grand occasion of cleaning houses in Japan after the epidemic on this project in Dubai? Here we see that the tokenization of new assets is not just about financial inclusion – it's market expansion.
Case 2: Uranium and other bulk commodities. Most retail investors have never dealt with uranium – it is too complex, has too many restrictions, and is too niche. However, through the new tokenized tool "digital uranium", investors can now directly invest in this key resource that powers the global nuclear energy transition. A brand new asset – delivered to a brand new audience – becomes investable through tokenization.
Case 3: Stocks are also being reassembled. During a downturn in the crypto market, tokenized ETFs like the Magnificent Seven have provided traders seeking real-world returns without having to exit cryptocurrency. In other words, tokenization allows assets to follow the money, rather than the other way around.
Case Four: Private Credit. The tightening of interest rate spreads in traditional financial markets has put lenders in a wait-and-see mode. Platforms like Maple and Goldfinch are leveraging tokenization to provide funding for loans to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in underbanked areas, while allowing global DeFi users to earn returns from real-world cash flows.
So, the bigger picture of RWA should be like this: tokenization is not just about wrapping old financial instruments; it is also about redefining what can become an asset—and putting it in the hands of those who value it the most. This is what "product-market fit" looks like in the on-chain era: global demand meets global accessibility, new assets encounter new liquidity, and finding the match to achieve product-market fit.
These new audiences—including institutional investors, the finance departments of fintech companies, and crypto-native investors—actually span two domains. Some are in traditional finance, while others are native to DeFi. For RWA to truly achieve large-scale development, the only way is to build a bridge between the two. This can be understood as follows: traditional finance (TradFi) brings assets—including credibility, compliance, and scale; decentralized finance (DeFi) brings distribution—24/7 access, smart contract automation, and global liquidity. The opportunity lies in how to connect the two securely, compliantly, and programmably.
This is not just a theoretical discussion, but is actually happening: Ondo Finance is bringing BlackRock's tokenized government bonds on-chain and connecting them to DeFi vaults; Centrifuge is converting off-chain credit into on-chain assets for use by protocols such as MakerDAO and Aave; Maple and Goldfinch enable institutional lenders to access global yield-seeking funds through DeFi channels. These examples all demonstrate the sparks that can fly when traditional financial assets meet DeFi liquidity.
Understanding the trend opportunities and confirming the direction, what we need is to obtain the right tools to participate in this RWA boom. This is where Cobo comes into play: Cobo provides end-to-end infrastructure for tokenized assets. Whether you are an asset issuer, a fund, or a securities company, Cobo can help you safely and compliantly bring real-world assets onto the blockchain.
Specifically, we do this:
🛠️ Tokenization as a Service
We help you connect various assets such as government bonds, credit, and real estate to the platform, and package them through smart contracts.
You can choose the chain, compliance framework, and access permissions.
We are responsible for technology, legal structure, and full lifecycle management.
🔐 Institutional-grade custody
Cobo is a qualified custodian under regulatory authorities.
Our MPC (Multi-Party Computation) wallet technology stack provides you with security, automation, and complete control—no mnemonic phrases required, eliminating single points of failure.
We support whitelist transfers, time-locked vaults, and multi-signature governance—everything you need for security features to ensure tokenized assets are safe and sound.
🌉 DeFi Integration
We don't just encapsulate your assets; we also provide tools for distribution and interaction.
Whether you want to integrate with Aave, provide staking services, or establish a liquidity pool, we can distribute and interact with the institutional wallets needed, such as Web3 wallets and MPC wallets, which serve as the infrastructure that can directly interact with the blockchain.
Cobo can be imagined as a middleware layer between traditional assets and on-chain liquidity. From asset access to custody, from compliance management to role-based authorization, and interaction with the blockchain in a risk-controlled environment, Cobo is your infrastructure partner, helping you build and expand your business in this new market.
Our RWA Engine can serve all stablecoin issuers, asset managers, as well as exchanges and exchange-like institutions.
The Cobo Tokenization Engine is our core technology engine built for the RWA era. We do not simply provide a single tool, but instead have constructed two complete end-to-end solutions that cover the two most important tracks in the tokenization field.
Left side: stablecoin issuance and full lifecycle management
In our interactions with clients, we have found that many institutions wish to issue their own branded stablecoin, but face three major challenges:
High technical threshold: smart contract development, multi-chain deployment
Regulatory Complexity: Compliance requirements vary across different jurisdictions.
On-chain liquidity allocation: Deep integration with mainstream DEX and CEX.
Application scenario display
Cross-border settlement: Enterprises can issue their own stablecoin for international trade settlement.
Internal Payments: Large groups can be used for internal transfers and employee salaries.
Right side: RWA on-chain issuance and management
The data we just saw—$29 billion from BUIDL and $120 million from Huaxia Fund—proves the enormous potential of the RWA market. However, to truly scale, what is needed is industrial-grade infrastructure. What we provide for RWA issuers is a true "turnkey" solution:
•Status Monitoring: Different statuses such as Success, Processing, Failed are clearly displayed.
•Rich in features: complete functions such as minting, burning, permission management, contract suspension, etc.
•Data Details: Total Supply, Individual Holding, Contract Address and other key information.
Today we discussed a lot of content together—from market trends to technical architecture, from specific cases to product demonstrations. But I want to summarize the core points of today in a sentence:
First sentence: The inevitability of reality - the irreversibility of tokenization;
Second sentence: The essence of motivation - RWA is not because blockchain is cool, or tokenization is trendy. It is because of the limitations of the traditional financial system - geographical boundaries, time constraints, high costs, and complex processes - these issues must be addressed;
The third statement: The call to action. Asset providers need to bring high-quality real-world assets; technology providers need to offer reliable infrastructure (this is our role); investors: provide liquidity and trust; regulators: provide a compliant framework.
This window will not stay open forever. Early participants will reap the greatest rewards— not only economic benefits, but also the opportunity to shape the future financial system.
About Cobo
Cobo is a trusted leader in digital asset custody and wallet technology, providing a one-stop wallet technology platform that enables institutions and developers to easily build, automate, and securely scale their digital asset businesses.
Cobo was founded in 2017 by blockchain pioneers and is headquartered in Singapore. It is trusted by over 500 leading digital asset companies globally, with managed assets reaching billions of dollars. Today, Cobo offers the only platform in the industry that combines four different digital asset wallet technologies: custodial wallets, MPC wallets, smart contract wallets, and exchange wallets. Cobo is committed to the highest security standards and regulatory compliance, maintaining a zero-incident record to date, and has obtained ISO 27001, SOC2 (Type 1 and Type 2) certifications, as well as licenses from multiple jurisdictions. With industry-leading innovations, Cobo has received recognition from authoritative organizations such as Hedgeweek and Global Custodian.
The content is for reference only, not a solicitation or offer. No investment, tax, or legal advice provided. See Disclaimer for more risks disclosure.
Cobo | The DeepSeek moment of RWA is approaching: a comprehensive analysis of development trends, implementation paths, and best practices for institutions.
This article is organized based on the speech titled "Real World Asset Practices in an Uncertain World" given by Cobo Lily Z. King at the RWA event held at JunHe Law Offices in Hong Kong on June 10, 2025, for several brokerage fund stablecoin institutions and family offices.
"Every asset—every stock, bond, and fund—can be tokenized, which will bring about an investment revolution." This is a quote from Larry Fink, Chairman and CEO of BlackRock. Larry Fink's vision that everything can be tokenized not only depicts a technological possibility but also heralds a profound transformation in the financial sector. When and where Larry Fink said this quote is more important than the quote itself. This statement appeared in BlackRock's annual letter sent to all investors on March 31 of this year. However, in last year's annual letter from BlackRock, terms like stablecoin, RWA, tokenization, and digital assets, which are now the most popular in the market, were not mentioned at all; the only thing related to digital assets was the BTC ETF. This year's annual letter from BlackRock passionately advocates for how tokenization can bring about financial democratization.
Why are so many big names, including Larry Fink, choosing this moment to discuss Real World Assets (RWA)? Some say it's because DeFi on-chain yields have dried up, so everyone is looking for returns in the real world. Others say it's because RWA is currently the only hot topic; whoever is associated with it rises, whether it's coins or stocks. There are also those who say that there was a wave of RWA enthusiasm in 2017-2018, and back then it was called ICO, which was a trend. And some say, why analyze so much, if we don't engage with RWA, we will soon be out of work!
We may still need to understand the ins and outs of this RWA trend in order to make the right choices in the next 6-12 months, allowing RWA to truly take off in Asia and secure a place in the upcoming global competition.
Today, the world is undergoing a significant change in the macro landscape. For the first time in decades, we find ourselves in a world filled with geopolitical uncertainty, trade wars, capital controls, and a fragmented, even weaponized, global financial system. Although the US dollar remains strong, countries are seeking to hedge against risks, and cross-border capital flows are increasingly subject to stricter controls.
In such a situation, it is only natural that global capital will look for faster, cheaper, and more open channels for flow. At the same time, digital asset-related policies are also catching up. In the United States, both parties are pushing for stablecoins and tokenization policy frameworks, and tokenization is no longer a niche experiment in Asia – digital assets have risen to become a national strategy. Finally, the technical support level is gradually maturing. Over the past 12 to 18 months, we've seen tremendous improvements: near-zero transaction fees on Tron, Solana, Base, and various Layer 2 chains, sub-second final confirmation times for stablecoin on-chain transactions, and rapid improvements in the digital wallet user experience – such as abstracted gas fees, one-click approvals, and institutional-grade banking experience for escrow services.
So, why is Larry Fink now mentioning RWA? It is not because the hype cycle has arrived, but because the world needs it more than ever before—a way and vision to efficiently, compliantly, and globally integrate traditional finance into the future of finance.
In Larry Fink's view, Wall Street needs to reduce costs and increase efficiency. Simply put, Real World Assets (RWA) can make the market faster, more streamlined, and more global—without touching existing rules. Wall Street is not about crypto for the sake of crypto, but rather about improving the infrastructure of the existing capital markets.
First is the efficiency issue. The settlement cycle of traditional finance such as bonds and private credit is slow and expensive, with cumbersome operational processes. In contrast, after RWA is on-chain, it has achieved:
Instant settlement - T+0, rather than T+2 or even longer.
24/7 liquidity - no market closing time and no time zone restrictions.
Built-in auditability - the ledger is real-time and publicly transparent.
Large institutions have recognized the potential for cost reduction and efficiency improvement and have acted swiftly. Major institutions, including BlackRock and Franklin Templeton, have launched sizable tokenized government bonds on the blockchain, which can be settled on-chain and pay daily yields via smart contracts. These are no longer experiments—they are a new type of financial infrastructure that is operational.
Secondly, there is the issue of reach. Tokenized assets can reach investors that traditional channels cannot cover—especially in emerging markets or non-traditional investor groups. For example:
The tokenized government bonds launched by Ondo, Matrixdock, and Plume are being purchased by DAOs, cryptocurrency treasuries, and stablecoin holders in Asia, Latin America, and Africa—these groups' KYC is something traditional brokers may never be able to reach for these stable-yielding assets with strong credit.
Some real estate tokenization projects in the UAE and the United States have achieved fragmented ownership and global distribution limited by compliance thresholds, which was simply not feasible before tokenization.
RWA not only reduces friction but also expands the market.
Finally, there is programmability. This is fundamentally where tokenized assets become more powerful, as it allows business logic to be embedded within the assets themselves:
Compliant transfer rules
Embedded Yield Payment
auto-rebalancing
even embedded governance rights
Cantor Fitzgerald (the company whose CEO was the current U.S. Secretary of Commerce and has a very deep relationship with Tether) recently partnered with Maple Finance to launch a $2 billion Bitcoin collateralized lending arrangement – they are using smart contracts to automate parts of the loan structuring and risk monitoring. This signals the beginning of a larger transformation: financial products are not just digital, but also intelligent – they can be traded globally, are designed with built-in compliance, and can be integrated into any digital portfolio instantly.
RWA is gaining momentum, and the specific numbers from the market can tell us whether RWA is still a marginal experiment or has already moved towards the mainstream.
As of June 9, the total value of tokenized real-world assets (RWA) on public blockchains has reached nearly $23.4 billion. This is only part of what can be tracked, with on-chain asset products including US Treasury bonds, corporate credit, real estate, various funds, and even commodities. $23.4 billion accounts for about 10% of the stablecoin market size and 0.7% of the entire Crypto market, ranking 10th or 11th in market capitalization among all tokens.
Further analysis of the data reveals several observations:
💳 The scale of private credit exceeds that of government bonds.
The core product of Figure, with a scale of 12 billion USD (home equity line of credit, investor mortgages, cash-out refinancing), moves institutional-grade home loans "on chain" using the Provenance blockchain (Cosmos) from loan origination to inter-institutional transfer, completing the transfer and settlement of ownership/beneficial rights on-chain. Each loan is minted as a digital eNote and registered in the digital asset registry system to replace MERS registration and manual custody verification, obtaining on-chain identity, which can be instantly sold, pledged, or securitized. 90-95% of Figure's existing loans already exist in the form of on-chain eNotes. This process eliminates paper notes, MERS registration fees, and manual custody verification, reducing friction costs by over 100 basis points per loan and shortening the fund settlement time from weeks to days.
Securitize collaborates with Drift Protocol to bring Apollo's $1 billion diversified credit fund on-chain.
To date, Maple Finance has issued over $2.5 billion in tokenized loans.
Centrifuge is providing support for real-world credit pools to DeFi protocols such as Aave and Maker.
🏦 Tokenized government bonds have become a trend
BlackRock's BUIDL fund: with a total management size of 2.9 billion USD, currently leading the way.
Ondo's scale is 1.3 billion USD, and Franklin Templeton's BENJI fund tokenization scale is approximately 775 million USD.
Matrixdock and Superstate have scaled this category to over 7 billion dollars.
These are not crypto-native experiments, but rather mainstream financial institutions utilizing blockchain as infrastructure to settle and distribute government bonds.
🏢 Commodity futures tokens are an earlier attempt than government bond tokenization, with a certain first-mover advantage.
🏢Funds, including real estate funds, are experiencing strong momentum in RWA.
In the UAE, the MAG Group (one of the largest developers in Dubai), MultiBank (the largest financial derivatives trader), and Mavryk (a blockchain technology company) announced a $3 billion collaboration aimed at putting luxury properties on the blockchain.
Platforms such as RealT and Parcl in the United States are allowing retail investors to purchase fractional shares of income-generating real estate—profits are directly distributed to wallets.
These asset tokens are income-generating, tradable, and legally effective assets. In today's market environment, these assets are particularly attractive—they can generate income, have low volatility, and are now accessible to stablecoin holders, DAOs, and financial executives of fintech companies.
Based on the above analysis, we believe that tokenized RWA is no longer just a concept—it has become a market: real assets, real issuers, real returns, and these numbers are growing exponentially.
Let us take a look at some specific and real-world RWA project cases, particularly the RWA practices in Hong Kong and the Asia region: five representative RWA projects, covering different stages and models from traditional banks to technology companies, from gold to new energy, from pilot to formal operation.
This is a typical case of traditional banks entering the RWA field.
Key Insight: HSBC has chosen a private blockchain, focusing on retail customers and avoiding the complexities of the secondary market.
Strategic significance: Banks are more concerned with compliance and risk control, rather than maximizing liquidity.
Description of the issue: Traditional financial institutions may initially choose a closed ecosystem when testing the waters.
This represents China's exploration of RWA in the "new infrastructure" field.
The financing scale of 100 million RMB proves the recognition of institutions for the tokenization of real assets.
Key point: Still in the sandbox phase, indicating that regulation is being advanced cautiously.
Investor composition: domestic and foreign institutions + family offices, showing interest in cross-border capital.
Larger scale: Over 200 million RMB, demonstrating the attractiveness of green energy assets.
ESG Concept: Green energy assets comply with global ESG investment trends
Circulation Design: Still in the design stage, indicating that the tokenization of complex assets requires more technological and legal innovations.
The Pilot of International Banks: UBS's Participation as a Swiss Banking Giant is Significant
B2B model: Directed issuance to OSL, focusing on process verification rather than scale
Technical validation: Focus on proving the technical feasibility of tokenized warrants.
The most transparent case: on the Ethereum public chain, the data is fully traceable.
Retail-oriented: 800 address holders, truly aimed at ordinary investors.
Compliance Balance: The Balance Between KYC Requirements and On-Chain Transparency
From the above five projects, we can simply extract a few keywords: private chain, institutional and targeted retail, and pilot non-scale. These projects cover different backgrounds in Hong Kong, mainland China and the world, showing a hundred flowers in full bloom. Specifically, Hong Kong is relatively open and pro-innovation; The mainland project is being promoted cautiously, and the sandbox is piloted; International: Big banks are actively testing the waters. The real challenge for current projects is the liquidity challenge: most projects are facing a lack of liquidity in the secondary market, which is where RWA's current "bottleneck" lies.
Compared to projects in Hong Kong that are still in the experimental stage, we will further observe the five leading RWA projects that are currently operating at scale in the global market, as they represent the best practices in the market today.
Leading in scale: $2.9 billion, taking the lead among all tokenized treasury products.
Institutional-oriented: There are only 75 holding addresses, but the monthly trading volume reaches as high as 620 million USD.
Key Insight: On average, each address holds nearly $40 million, demonstrating the significant demand from institutional investors.
Strategic significance: BlackRock has chosen a quality over quantity approach, focusing on serving large institutions.
Most interesting data: 577 address holders, but the trading volume in 30 days is only 20 dollars.
Retail-oriented: This is a product truly aimed at ordinary investors.
Liquidity challenge: There is almost no secondary trading, indicating that holders are more likely to "buy and hold"; it is also possible that the holders are not unfamiliar ordinary people, but rather the most familiar ordinary people.
Market Insight: Retail investors may be more concerned about returns rather than liquidity.
Balanced Strategy: $690 million in scale, 70 addresses, $14 million in trading volume
Institutional efficiency: Although the scale is not as large as BUIDL, the trading activity is relatively high.
Clear positioning: Focus on accredited investors in the U.S., avoiding the complexities of retail regulation.
Moderate scale: 640 million USD, 67 addresses
High trading activity: A 30-day trading volume of $63 million demonstrates good liquidity.
Dual Compliance: Targeting U.S. accredited & qualified investors, with the strictest compliance requirements.
The biggest discovery: 15,487 addresses! This is a truly "mass-market" product.
Global strategy: specifically serves non-US investors, avoiding the complexities of US regulation.
Democratized investment: On average, each address holds about $40,000, truly realizing inclusive finance.
By analyzing international projects, several core insights and trends can be drawn: the type of investors determines product design. Institutional products are generally held by only a few large holders, with high prices and low trading frequency; retail products, on the other hand, are mostly held by individual investors, with low prices and a focus on holding; as for global products, they emphasize avoiding regulatory complexity through geographical differentiation.
Based on the current RWA projects in the Hong Kong and international markets, we can draw the following observations:
There is no one-size-fits-all model for every market: institutional and retail markets require completely different product designs;
Regulation is the biggest dividing line: there is a huge difference in product performance between American and non-American investors, with American professional investors having a clear advantage in terms of liquidity.
Liquidity remains a challenge: even the most successful products do not have high activity in the secondary market;
Key to scaling: either go deep (large institutional amounts) or go wide (retail popularization).
The data and analysis above reveal an important reality: successful RWA products need to find their own liquidity and unique product-market fit.
RWA tokenization is easy, but distribution is difficult. Anyone can mint a token that represents a piece of real estate or a U.S. Treasury bond. Getting these tokens into the right hands at scale, compliantly, and consistently – that's the real challenge.
In addition to the leading RWA projects we have seen before, there are actually dozens of tokenized government bond products on the chain now, many of which offer considerable returns, but most of them have an asset under management (AUM) of less than a few million dollars. Why is that? Because they have not been integrated into DeFi protocols, are not listed on regulated exchanges, and institutional buyers cannot easily access them without customized onboarding processes.
The value of tokenized assets directly depends on the convenience of their exit. Currently, apart from a few pools like Maple or Centrifuge, the liquidity in the RWA secondary market is very weak. One reason for this is that RWA does not yet have a market similar to NASDAQ or even a decent bond market. This also leads to a lack of pricing transparency, thereby limiting institutional participation.
Finally, the fragmented regulation of RWA remains a major obstacle. Each jurisdiction has a different view on whether tokens qualify as securities, how they should be custodied, and who can hold them. This is slowing down the cross-border scaling process of RWA, particularly in Asia where this process is especially sluggish.
Therefore, we see that the quality of RWA assets is improving, and the infrastructure is becoming increasingly robust, but the "last mile" has not yet been connected: how to match tokenized assets with appropriate funding to establish liquidity, allowing RWA to truly take effect.
This is the challenge faced by the current RAW industry, and it is also where the biggest opportunity lies.
To solve this liquidity challenge, the real breakthrough lies not only in better infrastructure but also in the alignment between products and markets. It's not as simple as just putting old traditional assets onto a new blockchain track; the core question is: who really needs this asset? If this asset becomes more accessible, which new markets can it serve? If the U.S. stock market trades 24X7 and more brokers can buy and sell digital assets, will there still be demand for tokenized ETFs and U.S. stock trading?
Tokenization can do two very powerful things: first, it can find new demand for existing assets that are stagnant in traditional markets; second, it can create entirely new investable assets and deliver them to investors who have previously never been able to participate.
Reinvigorating demand: RWA's current popularity of Spicy Chicken US Bonds is actually one such case. In traditional financial markets, the U.S. Treasury market is becoming crowded and less attractive. However, in the crypto world and emerging markets, they have a new opportunity: on-chain stablecoin issuers are using tokenized Treasury bills to generate on-chain yields. The blockchain platform, designed specifically for RWA, is already selling U.S. Treasuries directly to retail investors in Africa, giving them access to dollar-denominated assets with carried income that have never been offered by local banks. In this case, tokenization isn't just about digitizing assets – it's also matching assets to a global, underserved audience that craves security and profit.
Innovative new investable assets: When tokenization creates new assets, this presents a more exciting opportunity.
Case 1: Take luxury real estate in Dubai as an example. Dubai's real estate growth over the past few years has impressed many overseas investors. But how many investors can actually enter the market? First of all, is the investor going to fly to Dubai? Secondly, you need a reliable real estate agent. But sorry, they don't show up during the day. Traditionally, this market has been closed – opaque, with high barriers, and difficult access for foreigners. Now, through tokenization, projects like the $3 billion MAG are opening up fractional ownership of high-end properties to buyers around the world – and equipped with compliance, yield, and liquidity pathways. Under this model, is it possible for Shanghainese to recreate the grand occasion of cleaning houses in Japan after the epidemic on this project in Dubai? Here we see that the tokenization of new assets is not just about financial inclusion – it's market expansion.
Case 2: Uranium and other bulk commodities. Most retail investors have never dealt with uranium – it is too complex, has too many restrictions, and is too niche. However, through the new tokenized tool "digital uranium", investors can now directly invest in this key resource that powers the global nuclear energy transition. A brand new asset – delivered to a brand new audience – becomes investable through tokenization.
Case 3: Stocks are also being reassembled. During a downturn in the crypto market, tokenized ETFs like the Magnificent Seven have provided traders seeking real-world returns without having to exit cryptocurrency. In other words, tokenization allows assets to follow the money, rather than the other way around.
Case Four: Private Credit. The tightening of interest rate spreads in traditional financial markets has put lenders in a wait-and-see mode. Platforms like Maple and Goldfinch are leveraging tokenization to provide funding for loans to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in underbanked areas, while allowing global DeFi users to earn returns from real-world cash flows.
So, the bigger picture of RWA should be like this: tokenization is not just about wrapping old financial instruments; it is also about redefining what can become an asset—and putting it in the hands of those who value it the most. This is what "product-market fit" looks like in the on-chain era: global demand meets global accessibility, new assets encounter new liquidity, and finding the match to achieve product-market fit.
These new audiences—including institutional investors, the finance departments of fintech companies, and crypto-native investors—actually span two domains. Some are in traditional finance, while others are native to DeFi. For RWA to truly achieve large-scale development, the only way is to build a bridge between the two. This can be understood as follows: traditional finance (TradFi) brings assets—including credibility, compliance, and scale; decentralized finance (DeFi) brings distribution—24/7 access, smart contract automation, and global liquidity. The opportunity lies in how to connect the two securely, compliantly, and programmably.
This is not just a theoretical discussion, but is actually happening: Ondo Finance is bringing BlackRock's tokenized government bonds on-chain and connecting them to DeFi vaults; Centrifuge is converting off-chain credit into on-chain assets for use by protocols such as MakerDAO and Aave; Maple and Goldfinch enable institutional lenders to access global yield-seeking funds through DeFi channels. These examples all demonstrate the sparks that can fly when traditional financial assets meet DeFi liquidity.
Understanding the trend opportunities and confirming the direction, what we need is to obtain the right tools to participate in this RWA boom. This is where Cobo comes into play: Cobo provides end-to-end infrastructure for tokenized assets. Whether you are an asset issuer, a fund, or a securities company, Cobo can help you safely and compliantly bring real-world assets onto the blockchain.
Specifically, we do this:
🛠️ Tokenization as a Service
We help you connect various assets such as government bonds, credit, and real estate to the platform, and package them through smart contracts.
You can choose the chain, compliance framework, and access permissions.
We are responsible for technology, legal structure, and full lifecycle management.
🔐 Institutional-grade custody
Cobo is a qualified custodian under regulatory authorities.
Our MPC (Multi-Party Computation) wallet technology stack provides you with security, automation, and complete control—no mnemonic phrases required, eliminating single points of failure.
We support whitelist transfers, time-locked vaults, and multi-signature governance—everything you need for security features to ensure tokenized assets are safe and sound.
🌉 DeFi Integration
We don't just encapsulate your assets; we also provide tools for distribution and interaction.
Whether you want to integrate with Aave, provide staking services, or establish a liquidity pool, we can distribute and interact with the institutional wallets needed, such as Web3 wallets and MPC wallets, which serve as the infrastructure that can directly interact with the blockchain.
Cobo can be imagined as a middleware layer between traditional assets and on-chain liquidity. From asset access to custody, from compliance management to role-based authorization, and interaction with the blockchain in a risk-controlled environment, Cobo is your infrastructure partner, helping you build and expand your business in this new market.
Our RWA Engine can serve all stablecoin issuers, asset managers, as well as exchanges and exchange-like institutions.
The Cobo Tokenization Engine is our core technology engine built for the RWA era. We do not simply provide a single tool, but instead have constructed two complete end-to-end solutions that cover the two most important tracks in the tokenization field.
Left side: stablecoin issuance and full lifecycle management
In our interactions with clients, we have found that many institutions wish to issue their own branded stablecoin, but face three major challenges:
High technical threshold: smart contract development, multi-chain deployment
Regulatory Complexity: Compliance requirements vary across different jurisdictions.
Operational difficulties: reserve management, liquidity allocation
Cobo's solution
What we offer is not just technical tools, but a complete ecosystem:
Compliance Issuance: Helping clients issue branded stablecoins in accordance with local regulatory requirements.
Multi-chain deployment: A single system that supports multiple mainstream blockchains such as Ethereum, BSC, and Polygon.
Comprehensive toolkit:
Reserve Asset Management: Real-time Monitoring, Automated Reporting
Minting/Burning Control: Precise Supply Management
On-chain liquidity allocation: Deep integration with mainstream DEX and CEX.
Application scenario display
Cross-border settlement: Enterprises can issue their own stablecoin for international trade settlement.
Internal Payments: Large groups can be used for internal transfers and employee salaries.
Right side: RWA on-chain issuance and management
The data we just saw—$29 billion from BUIDL and $120 million from Huaxia Fund—proves the enormous potential of the RWA market. However, to truly scale, what is needed is industrial-grade infrastructure. What we provide for RWA issuers is a true "turnkey" solution:
Smart Contract Deployment: Audited, Modular Contract Templates
Whitelist Access Control: Precise permission management to meet different regulatory requirements
Custody Integration: Seamless integration with our custody, MPC wallet, and Hong Kong trust company.
This shows the real user interface and operating process of our tokenization platform.
Step 1: Product Review
This is the first interface that the user sees.
• Clear three-step process: Define the token & deploy the contract, configure permissions & policies, launch & operate the token
• No technical barrier commitment: The interface clearly states "no technical knowledge required"
•One-click start: Lower the user entry threshold.
Step 2: Token Configuration
This shows the actual configuration interface:
•Blockchain Selection: Users can choose different blockchains such as the Ethereum mainnet.
•Token basic information: name, symbol and other necessary information
•Security Settings: MPC wallet integration to ensure asset security
•Custom settings: Meet the personalized needs of different customers.
Step 3: Confirm & Deploy
This is the key confirmation stage:
•Information Verification: All parameters are clear at a glance.
•Cost Transparency: Clearly displays deployment fees ($0.99)
•MPC Wallet Display: Showcased our core security technology
•Final confirmation: Give users a final chance to review
Step 4: Token Management
This is the management interface after deployment:
•Multi-token management: supports managing multiple token projects simultaneously.
•Status Monitoring: Different statuses such as Success, Processing, Failed are clearly displayed.
•Rich in features: complete functions such as minting, burning, permission management, contract suspension, etc.
•Data Details: Total Supply, Individual Holding, Contract Address and other key information.
Today we discussed a lot of content together—from market trends to technical architecture, from specific cases to product demonstrations. But I want to summarize the core points of today in a sentence:
First sentence: The inevitability of reality - the irreversibility of tokenization;
Second sentence: The essence of motivation - RWA is not because blockchain is cool, or tokenization is trendy. It is because of the limitations of the traditional financial system - geographical boundaries, time constraints, high costs, and complex processes - these issues must be addressed;
The third statement: The call to action. Asset providers need to bring high-quality real-world assets; technology providers need to offer reliable infrastructure (this is our role); investors: provide liquidity and trust; regulators: provide a compliant framework.
This window will not stay open forever. Early participants will reap the greatest rewards— not only economic benefits, but also the opportunity to shape the future financial system.
About Cobo
Cobo is a trusted leader in digital asset custody and wallet technology, providing a one-stop wallet technology platform that enables institutions and developers to easily build, automate, and securely scale their digital asset businesses.
Cobo was founded in 2017 by blockchain pioneers and is headquartered in Singapore. It is trusted by over 500 leading digital asset companies globally, with managed assets reaching billions of dollars. Today, Cobo offers the only platform in the industry that combines four different digital asset wallet technologies: custodial wallets, MPC wallets, smart contract wallets, and exchange wallets. Cobo is committed to the highest security standards and regulatory compliance, maintaining a zero-incident record to date, and has obtained ISO 27001, SOC2 (Type 1 and Type 2) certifications, as well as licenses from multiple jurisdictions. With industry-leading innovations, Cobo has received recognition from authoritative organizations such as Hedgeweek and Global Custodian.
For more information, please visit: www.cobo.com.