The RWA sector gained 7.2% in market cap, though it still underperformed other narratives like meme coins in relative growth.
TL;DR…
- Market rebound: Crypto market sentiment improved as Bitcoin rose 2.9% and the Fear & Greed Index climbed, signaling renewed interest across top assets.
- RWA performance: The RWA sector gained 7.2% in market cap, though it still underperformed other narratives like meme coins in relative growth.
- TVL milestones: The total value locked in RWA protocols surged past $10B, led by BlackRock’s BUIDL and Ethena’s USDtb products with major weekly expansions.
- Key developments: Zoth exploited for $8.4M; Fidelity, CPIC, and Australia push forward with new RWA-focused products and regulatory frameworks.
Real-world assets (RWAs) surged back into focus this week as broader market sentiment improved and capital began to flow back into promising RWA tokens.
In today’s update, we cover the latest trends, best and worst performers, and key regulatory developments shaping the RWA landscape right now.
Let’s dive in!
>> Did you miss last week’s RWA update? Check it out here.
Market Overview
The crypto market bounced back strongly last week, with the vast majority of cryptocurrencies recovering from the major sell-off earlier this month.
Source: Bitcoin (BTC) Coin Page
In the last week, Bitcoin (BTC) has gained 2.9% and now trades at around $86,600, whereas Ethereum (ETH) is down 0.9%, trading at around $2,010.
The CoinMarketCap 100 Index is up 2.3% this week, representing the average gain across the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization (mcap).
Source: CMC Crypto Fear & Greed Index
Overall, hope is beginning to return to the industry, with the CMC Crypto Fear and Greed Index now sitting at 34—still slightly fearful but a market improvement from the 15 seen just weeks ago.
RWA Sector Recap
The RWA token sector benefitted from significantly improved conditions in the last week, with around 80% of the top 100 RWA tokens seeing a gain over this period.
Overall, the sector saw its market capitalization swell from $49.7 billion to $53.2 billion in the last seven days—equivalent to a gain of 7.2%.
Most RWA tokens are in the green this week, but some are performing better than others. Below is a quick spotlight on this week’s biggest winners:
- Reserve Rights (RSR): gained 34.2%
- Chintai (CHEX): gained 29.5%
- Realio Network (RIO): gained 27.5%
- TokenFi (TOKEN): gained 25.5%
- PropBase (PROPS): gained 23.3%
But not all RWA tokens managed to hold up quite so well. A small contingent is still steeped in red over the last week, with the worst affected examples being:
- Plume (PLUME): lost 12.2%
- Brickken (BKN): lost 8.7%
- Dusk (DUSK): lost 7.8%
- Hifi Finance (HIFI): lost 5.6%
- DIA (DIA): lost 3.8%
Despite the impressive numbers displayed by some of the best-performing RWA projects, the sector is still lagging behind other sectors in terms of growth.
According to DefiLlama’s narrative tracker, the RWA sector ranked 16th of the 22 sectors tracked by the platform, achieving an mcap-weighted gain of 1.9%.
>> Click here to keep tabs on your favorite RWA tokens.
For comparison, the best-performing sector was meme tokens, with an mcap-weighted gain of 13.3%, while the worst was Ethereum tokens, with an mcap-weighted loss of 1.5%.
When it comes to total value locked (TVL), the sector continues to go from strength to strength.
Source: DefiLlama
The sector smashed through the $10 billion TVL threshold earlier this week and now stands at $10.8 billion—largely due to the success of BlackRock's BUIDL product and Ethena USDtb, which expanded by 58.9% and 36.2%, respectively this week.
>> Interested in RWA? Check out our deep dive on the related DePIN sector.
RWA News Roundup
Another week, another wave of significant developments in the RWA sector.
Here, we’ve collected a selection of the most important news to keep you up to date on the latest happenings.
Zoth RWA Protocol Suffers $8.4M Exploit Due to Admin Key Leak: Real-world asset (RWA) restaking protocol Zoth experienced an $8.4 million exploit after its deployer wallet was compromised, allowing attackers to withdraw funds and convert them into DAI. The original report of the incident was flagged by blockchain security firm Cyvers, which identified a suspicious transaction involving Zoth's deployer wallet.
Fidelity Joins RWA Race With On-Chain Treasury Fund: Fidelity Investments has filed to register a blockchain-based version of its U.S. dollar money market fund, aiming to tokenize real-world assets (RWA) and enhance efficiency in capital markets. Additionally, the firm is in the late stages of developing its own stablecoin to serve as digital cash within its digital asset strategy.
China's CPIC Launches $100M Tokenized Money Market Fund With HashKey: China Pacific Insurance (CPIC) Investment Management introduced the eStable Money Market Fund on HashKey Chain, securing $100 million in first-day subscriptions. The fund invests in U.S. dollar-denominated short-term fixed income assets and money market instruments, accessible to professional and institutional investors.
Australia Eyes RWAs in New Crypto Framework: Australia proposed a digital asset framework integrating tokenized real-world assets and stablecoins into the economy, aiming to foster innovation through regulated platforms, trials for tokenized money, and clearer treatment of digital value under future licensing laws. (source)
>> That’s all for this week’s update. Join us next week for more RWA insights, updates, and analyses.
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