Significant RWA initiatives include Spiko's launch of T-Bills Money Market Funds on Arbitrum and Robinhood CEO's advocacy for RWA tokenization.
TL;DR…
- Bitcoin Resilience: Amid market volatility, Bitcoin is holding above $100K, showcasing strength as altcoins suffer significant losses; dominance spikes to 58.6%.
- Altcoin Struggle: Over 80% of altcoins are down, testing support levels after retracing gains from December and January; the Altcoin Season Index drops to 42/100.
- RWA Sector Overview: The real-world assets (RWA) sector is seeing a minor decline, down 2.5% over the week, though some tokens like MANTRA (OM) and Ondo (ONDO) report gains.
- Noteworthy Developments: Significant RWA initiatives include Spiko's launch of T-Bills Money Market Funds on Arbitrum and Robinhood CEO's advocacy for RWA tokenization.
If you’re an altcoin maxi, the past week probably hit hard.
Over the last seven days, Bitcoin (BTC) flexed its relative strength against altcoins, sending most into a tailspin while the OG cryptocurrency held above the $100K price point.
As a result, many altcoins are now testing their recent support levels, with several retracing their entire upward moves seen throughout December and early January.
Before we take a look at how the RWA sector was impacted, here’s a brief overview of the market situation.
>> Did you miss last week’s RWA update? Check it out here.
Market Overview
The last week has been volatile for the cryptocurrency market with Bitcoin (BTC) oscillating between $98,000 and almost $107,000.
Source: Bitcoin (BTC) Coin Page
The OG cryptocurrency is now hovering around the $102,000 price point—down 2.1% in the last seven days.
This volatility hasn’t favored altcoins. Over 80% of altcoins suffered a significant hit this week, with losses of 10-30% seen frequently among the top 100.
As a result, Bitcoin's dominance has spiked to 58.6%, its highest value since November 2024. Meanwhile, the CMC Altcoin Season Index has fallen back to 42/100, down from a peak of 87 last April.
Overall, the market is BTC-centric right now, with altcoin season not yet within sight.
RWA Market Recap
Like most altcoin categories, the RWA sector suffered a blow over the last week.
Source: Top Real World Assets Page
The sector is down 2.5% over the last seven days, with $2.7 billion shed from its market capitalization (mcap). Its mcap now stands at $67.3 billion, which is still just inches away from the all-time high of $72.1 billion seen on Jan. 20, 2025.
As it stands, eight of the top 10 largest RWA tokens by mcap are in the red over the last week, hitting Quant (QNT) the hardest with a 16.9% decline.
Source: MANTRA (OM) Token Page
MANTRA (OM) and Ondo (ONDO) managed to buck the trend and record impressive gains of 27.8% and 6.7% respectively.
A handful of smaller RWA tokens also managed to stay in the green over the last week. The best performers include:
- Veloce (VEXT): gained 43.7%
- Zebec Network (ZEBEC): gained 24.9%
- ELYSIA (EL): gained 15.8%
- Artrade (ATR): gained 13.3%
With that said, it’s perhaps more appropriate to discuss this week’s most affected tokens—and there are a lot of them.
Roughly 80% of RWA tokens are down over the last seven days. This week’s worst performers include:
- RWA Inc. (RWA): lost 44.4%
- Oraichain (ORAI): lost 22.8%
- Clearpool (CPOOL): lost 21.8%
- Chromia (CHR): lost 20.6%
According to DefiLlama’s narrative tracker, the real-world asset (RWA) sector has held up particularly well over the last week, despite the shattering losses experienced by many RWA tokens. The sector experienced a mcap-weighted return of just -2.6%, making it the second-best performer of the 22 sectors tracked by the platform.
For comparison, PolitiFi tokens suffered a -25.6% mcap-weighted change over this period, while Artificial Intelligence (AI) suffered a -12.4% return.
RWA News Roundup
Though the RWA token sector suffered a minor blow recently, significant developments continue in the background, boding well for the industry's future.
Some of the most significant developments for this week include:
Spiko Money Market Funds Deployed on Arbitrum: Spiko has launched U.S. and EU T-Bills Money Market Funds on the Ethereum L2 Arbitrum, marking a major step in integrating real-world assets (RWA) into DeFi. The funds, totaling $159M in assets, offer tokenized, UCITS-compliant shares available to all investors, enhancing accessibility and regulatory compliance in the blockchain space.
Robinhood CEO Advocates RWA Tokenization: In an opinion piece published by the Washington Post, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev highlighted the potential of real-world assets (RWAs) to expand investment opportunities for retail investors. Tenev emphasized that tokenization could allow access to shares in high-value companies like SpaceX and OpenAI before initial public offerings (IPOs), but regulatory changes are needed to broaden investor eligibility and establish clear guidelines for tokenized securities. (source)
Circle Expands Into Tokenized Money Markets: Circle has acquired Hashnote and its $1.25 billion tokenized money market fund, USYC, to enhance its stablecoin ecosystem. This move integrates USYC with USDC, facilitating seamless convertibility between cash and collateral across crypto and traditional finance. The acquisition, announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos, aims to boost liquidity and settlement capabilities, with significant support from DRW subsidiary Cumberland in bridging both tokens.
>> That’s a wrap for this week’s RWA recap. Join us next Wednesday for another dose of RWA news, updates, and analyses.
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