GM from THE RWA DESK! Your one-stop shop for everything RWA Front-Row Intelligence, Front-line Dealflow.
The RWA Desk continues its mandate in Edition 2: deliver first-rate intelligence and convert it into practical next steps for our community. With policy clarity improving and institutional rails going live, Edition 2 concentrates on implementations that matter—licensed distribution, bank-grade custody, and issuers moving from pilots to programs.
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Here’s What We Got For You:
RWA Market Snapshot — Explosive Growth and Where It’s Happening
Insider Opinion — Global Settlement Network Co-Founder, Kyle Sonlin
Top Stories We’re Watching — Chainlink, SkyBridge, Aave
Front-Line Deal Sheet — $415M in Selected Deal Flow
Desk Chatter — Our Take on Tokenized Private Credit
1.Explosive Growth and Where It’s Happening
RWAs Hit $27.9B Onchain with 372K Holders, Private Credit Driving Majority of Growth
Plume Surges Ahead: 192K RWA Holders Make It the #1 Protocol by User Base
The Expanding Real-World Assets Ecosystem: Key Players by Sector
2. Insider Opinions
Kyle Sonlin, Co-founder of Global Settlement Network
“The RWA market hasn’t had a moment like this. We’ve seen vertical hype—real estate especially—for years. Contractors, fund managers, and hospitality owners all flirted with tokenizing portfolios to unlock short-term liquidity when banks passed. Others went “all in” on secondary liquidity, hoping tokens would backfill venture demand. Licenses were acquired, deals structured, markets launched—and then the classic Cold Start Problem hit: network effects too thin to ignite, like a New York winter engine that just won’t turn over.
That soapbox isn’t needed anymore. Stablecoins now sit inside everyday payments and park meaningful size in U.S. Treasuries. Money market funds—where basis-point edges matter—are adopting tokenized products both to cut cost and to open new distribution, tapping pools of capital that were fragmented and out of reach.
With ETFs, infrastructure, and treasury managers pushing counterparties into crypto—willingly or not—private credit is next. Crypto foundations and stablecoin firms have acquired a taste for yield; 3–4% Treasuries turned volatile balance sheets into durable AUM businesses. The logical step up the curve is controlled credit risk for materially higher returns. And traditional issuers are noticing what Figure proved with HELOCs: moving debt on-chain can harvest tens—sometimes hundreds—of basis points in efficiency without changing a single term. That’s the operating future.
A decade in, we finally have more than narratives and approvals—we have liquidity and organic capital ready to deploy. This time, we have to make it count.
3. Top Stories We’re Watching
Chainlink Partners with ICE (NYSE-Parent Company) to Bring Forex & Metals Data On-Chain
A core market rail just went live. ICE will contribute its FX and precious-metals rates from the ICE Consolidated Feed into Chainlink Data Streams, placing institution-grade pricing directly on-chain. For issuers, that means credible inputs for tokenized funds and on-chain NAVs. For venues, it enables faster margining, collateral calls, and structured notes that don’t hinge on screen-scraped feeds. This integration adds ICE as a contributor alongside other providers and brings data aggregated from 300+ global markets to more than 2,000 applications already using Chainlink’s infrastructure. The upshot: fewer excuses about data quality—more room to ship RWAs that pass compliance muster.
SkyBridge Tokenizes $300M in Hedge Funds via Avalanche
Anthony Scaramucci’s SkyBridge will move $300 million across two flagship vehicles onto Avalanche, in partnership with Tokeny and Apex Group. Stakes in Digital Macro Master Fund Ltd. and Legion Strategies Ltd. will be issued and administered under the ERC-3643 standard through Apex’s Digital 3.0 stack, preserving transfer controls while opening new compliant distribution rails. The move plants a well-known alternatives brand in on-chain fund interests—aiming to modernize ops and broaden access without re-engineering the underlying portfolios. Watch onboarding criteria and any secondary-liquidity mechanics as the rollout progresses.
Aave Turns RWAs Into Working Collateral
Aave Labs launched Horizon, an institutional borrowing venue that lets funds post tokenized assets (e.g., Treasuries, CLOs) and draw stablecoin liquidity without selling the underlying—bringing the “credit line against RWAs” play into production. Initial partners span major issuers and stablecoin providers. The aim is straightforward: compress time-to-cash for on-chain funds while offering lenders a new, risk-defined yield stream.
4. Noteworthy Transactions (August 2025)
Comp. | Date | Desc. | Size | Parties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
8/19 | Fund Tokenization Program | $300M | SkyBridge Capital, Tokeny (tokenization partner), Apex Group (custody and administration). | |
8/21 | Commercial Paper Issuance | $100M | US custodian (State Street) on JP Morgan's blockchain | |
8/15 | Public Offering | $15M | Clear Street; Needham & Co. (joint bookrunners) |
5. The RWA Desk Chatter
Over the last six years of crypto conferences, we’ve seen a shift in attendee dress code—far less hoodies, far more suits. Let’s walk through some quick financial history to explain this phenomenon, particularly through the lens of RWA Private Credit.
In the late ‘90s, banks financed about 70% of middle-market loans. The 2008 crisis reshaped leveraged lending, as banks stepped back, non-bank financial institutions (NBFI)—asset managers, funds, insurers—stepped in. Private credit took off, with AUM expanding from about $100B to $1.5T by 2023. However, lending didn’t stop; it moved off bank balance sheets to specialist managers who could underwrite faster, set bespoke covenants/terms, and price risk banks couldn’t carry.
In our view, Tokenized Credit is the next iteration of NBFI. Putting private credit on-chain broadens who can participate (where permitted), lowers operational friction, and pushes issuers to design for real liquidity—fractional positions, programmable transfer controls, and automated servicing on modern rails.
We’ve seen this play before. In equities, electronic trading started as a side project in the ’90s and became table stakes by the ‘00s. The first firms that leaned in made money on faster pipes (speed, cost, and reach); shortly after everyone else followed. Tokenized credit has the same feel: once a few managers show they can fund faster, service cleaner, and exit positions more cheaply, tokenization stops being “crypto” and starts being standard operating procedure.
We are still early. Yet we can’t help but feel history is beginning to rhyme as we watch the Hoodies enable greater efficiencies while the Suits start paying attention.
What’s Next for THE RWA DESK?
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THE RWA DESK
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