As global economic uncertainty intensifies, the RWA sector is experiencing unprecedented growth opportunities.
The Federal Reserves policy shift, high economic inflation, and intensified geopolitical conflicts have led to a growing demand for low-risk, stable-yield investments;
In 2024, the crypto spot ETF is approved, and institutional capital flows into on-chain finance at an accelerated pace, driving the DeFi ecosystem towards compliance and maturity;
As risk aversion heats up, gold becomes a core asset that institutional funds focus on. Under the premise that the transparency of traditional gold investment is questionable, it further boosts the growth of the RWA track.
In such a market environment, where is the next growth point of the RWA track? Matrixdock believes that this will come from intelligence and automation. Through AI empowerment, investors can manage on-chain assets more efficiently, optimize investment strategies, and reduce transaction costs, allowing more people to participate in the new development stage of the RWA market.
To further explore the future development of the RWA track, the challenges and breakthroughs faced by the RWA industry, we are honored to invite Eva, the head of Matrixdock, to listen to the voices of real RWA industry builders.
The following is a condensed transcript of the interview:
Odaily: With the development of blockchain technology, a variety of crypto innovative projects have emerged. You have accumulated rich experience in the Internet industry and blockchain field in the past. What made you finally join the RWA track and participate in the establishment of Matrixdock?
Eva: Although there have been many technological innovations in the industry in recent years, many products are still confined to the crypto circle. They are still far from truly influencing the global financial system, or even participating in the lives of ordinary people.
If there is anything that has the greatest chance of breaking through the circle, or breaking through the invisible barrier between the crypto circle and traditional finance, I think it is RWA. RWA is not a simple process of putting assets on the chain, but a process of reshaping the entire financial operation mode, including the reconstruction of trust. It not only makes the assets on the chain more stable, but also makes traditional finance more efficient and transparent.
I personally always insist that the value of technology should not remain in the code, but should truly change the world.
In the early days of the gaming industry, I learned to focus on user needs, making technology easier to use and lowering the threshold. This mindset made me focus on how to make complex technologies easier for ordinary people to accept and use after entering the blockchain. When we founded Bitdeer Cloud Computing, we used computing power cutting technology to turn mining into a sharing model like carpooling, allowing users around the world to participate with a low threshold. This was one of the early innovations of Web3 that was closest to the sharing economy. Later, in the BTC.com mining pool, we launched a user-level lucky value tracking indicator, allowing miners to find ways to optimize mining efficiency more quickly.
These experiences have made me accustomed to starting from real needs and using technology to simplify complexity. RWA can enable Web3 to influence mainstream finance and even change the fairness of wealth distribution. This is what I want to do and what Matrixdock is doing.
Odaily: You just mentioned using technology to make complexity simple. What pain points of traditional finance does RWA solve? What role does Matrixdock play in it?
Eva: Most traditional finance is slow, expensive, and has high barriers to entry. For example, traditional bond transactions often involve multiple departments, with complicated procedures and high transaction costs. RWA tokenization allows assets to be cleared on-chain at any time, which is efficient and low-cost. Through smart contracts, transactions can be executed automatically, reducing intermediary links; with high transparency, assets can be recorded and traded transparently and traceably through blockchain, which can effectively reduce fraud and improper operations in the market.
With the development of blockchain and smart contract technology, and the market has verified the feasibility of RWA, more and more institutions and even regulators are actively embracing RWA. For example, banks such as JPMorgan Chase are exploring tokenized bonds, and national-level regulators such as Switzerland and Singapore are also positive about the tokenization of real assets.
As a participant in the RWA industry, Matrixdock deeply understands the pain points of traditional finance and leads the industry standards in asset transparency, compliance, and humanization. For example, our assets strictly follow the sufficient reserves and audits to ensure that there are assets before there are tokens. Follow KYC/AML standards and cooperate with global institutions. The team combines traditional finance and blockchain expertise to deliver tradable and value-added assets, making RWA investment simpler and more feasible. At present, our STBT (US Treasury Token) has an AUM of US$120 million in one year and has become the underlying asset of stablecoin issuers and DeFi protocols. Our XAUm (gold token) has been online for less than half a year and has been deeply embedded in DeFi. It can be used for mortgage lending and trading hedging, making gold more flexible than ever.
Of course, we are also facing some challenges now. Traditional investors are accustomed to bank accounts, brokerage transactions and centralized custody, while on-chain investment involves wallet management, private key security and smart contract interaction, which is a brand new experience for them. In order to solve these problems, we have designed a complete process from KYC to on-chain operations, and also provided a user-friendly API to make it easier for individuals and institutions to accept and use our products.
Odaily: Speaking of gold, the transparency of physical gold has been criticized by the market recently, for example, Musk questioned the authenticity of the US Treasurys gold reserves. How does Matrixdocks gold token solve the investment pain points of physical gold?
Eva: The traditional gold market has always had two major pain points: opacity (such as the lack of reserve audits) and low liquidity (such as the geographical and time restrictions of ETFs). Some time ago, Musk questioned the authenticity of the US gold reserve audit, which reflects the markets doubts about the transparency of precious metal investment.
The value of gold has always been based on trust, but if the reserves are not transparent, the market will find it difficult to feel at ease. This is the significance of XAUms existence, using blockchain technology to rebuild the trust of gold and make it more transparent and verifiable.
XAUm is not paper gold. Each token is backed by 100% LBMA-certified physical gold. The gold comes from well-known suppliers such as Point Gold and Heraeus, and is stored in the worlds top vaults such as Brinks and Malca Amit. It is safe and compliant, and supports physical exchange. All reserves are regularly audited independently, and users can also view the gold storage status in real time through the blockchain, which is truly open and transparent. XAUm has changed gold from listening to others to checking it yourself.
XAUm supports large-scale transactions, allowing institutional investors to efficiently and safely allocate gold assets. Matrixdock connects the global gold market through multi-layer liquidity docking, optimizes pricing, and allows users to enjoy better liquidity and lower transaction costs. For example, during the gold shortage last month, we purchased more than 10 million US dollars in a single day, and the pricing was better than the market.
Not only that, XAUm is also very easy to use. It not only supports 7×24 transactions, but can also be pledged on multiple DeFi protocols to improve asset efficiency, and even combine with other on-chain assets to release financial potential.
XAUm allows gold to move from closed vaults to the open blockchain world. Every investor can become their own gold auditor and verify the reserve status in real time with just a few clicks. Therefore, XAUm is not only an investment product, but also a new industry standard, making gold investment more transparent, flexible and reliable. This is not only our vision, but also the future direction of financial technology.
Odaily: The tokenization of government bonds and gold you just mentioned are both standard assets. What do you think of the tokenization of non-standard assets? Does Matrixdock have any idea of trying to tokenize non-standard assets?
Eva: It is a very good idea to put non-standard assets on the chain. During the DeFi Summer period, there were endless explorations on this, which fully proved everyones demand for non-standard assets on the chain. But overall, the current infrastructure cannot meet the progress of non-standard assets on the chain.
Although the blockchain ecosystem has made progress, non-standard assets such as private equity and supply chain financing are still stuck on key issues such as transparency, liquidity and credit mechanisms, and the market needs more breakthroughs.
From the perspective of Matrixdock, we believe that the on-chainization of non-standard assets must be the next step in the development of RWA, but the key lies in whether the market demand and infrastructure are mature enough. Our strategy is standardization first, non-standardization later. At this stage, our focus is on standardized assets with high liquidity and high market recognition (US bonds, gold), because they already have mature trading markets and can be seamlessly integrated into the financial system on the chain. In the future, we are also paying attention to the possibility of non-standard assets, but the core logic will not change: transparency, liquidity, and on-chain financial composability. If a certain type of non-standard asset can achieve a breakthrough in these three points, such as short-term supply chain financing or even structured income products, we will immediately consider how to incorporate it into the Matrixdock ecosystem. But at present, we prefer to deepen the market for standardized assets first, and lay a solid foundation for the future tokenization of non-standard assets.
Odaily: Matrixdocks recent product update mentioned the deep integration of RWA and AI. As the first RWA participant in the industry to propose the concept of AI integration, can Eva give a detailed introduction on why you should embrace AI? What will investors feel?
In addition to the real needs of the market, I often think about the future of RWA. We can see the current popularity of RWA and the rapid development of AI, which makes the trend of AI from brain to hand inevitable. Under this technological wave, we firmly believe that the future of RWA lies in the deep integration of AI and blockchain, building a new financial infrastructure, and making the financial market smarter and more efficient.
RWA is not just about tokenizing assets, but also about the expansion of the portfolio after tokenization. We can hold assets through CeFi and DeFi, interact with more on-chain protocols, and obtain greater liquidity and higher asset utilization. With the popularization of AI, AI Agent, as an important asset management participation tool, has two clear requirements for the assets to be mobilized in on-chain interactions: assets are identifiable and assets are callable.
This involves the core concept of Matrixdock, to bring assets to life, we call it financial Lego. RWA is not just for the purpose of being on-chain, but to be truly useful. Through blockchain, AI and programmable assets, we build a more transparent and intelligent financial system, allowing traditional financial assets and crypto-native assets to be freely combined, traded and applied like Lego. Our STBT (US Treasury Token) and XAUm (Gold Token) are not only tokenized assets, but also intelligent asset portfolios that can be supported by wallets and APIs. Whether it is an individual, an institution or an AI agent, these assets can be combined like Lego, supporting stablecoins, DeFi and institutional applications, and releasing unlimited potential.
In the future, AI will automatically optimize asset allocation, such as dynamically adjusting the ratio of gold and US bonds, while blockchain ensures that each transaction is transparent and reliable, and smart contracts achieve 24/7 second-level transactions, eliminating intermediaries and reducing costs. Matrixdock uses AI + blockchain to give RWA wings, allowing assets to run on their own and investors to reap the benefits. This is not only our foresight, but also the reality we are practicing.
Odaily: Thank you Eva for sharing about AI finance. I am looking forward to seeing the intelligent future of RWA. At the end of this interview, we selected a question that investors are most curious about about gold. Is it appropriate to invest in gold now? Do you have any investment suggestions?
Eva: Trumps tariff policy has indeed increased market uncertainty, and geopolitics has further amplified this instability. As a safe-haven asset, gold is naturally sought after.
Although the current gold price continues to hit new highs, the core value of gold lies not in short-term fluctuations, but in its long-term anti-inflation and safe-haven properties. Considering the global economic turmoil, the credit problems of the US dollar, and the controversy over the transparency of gold reserves, it is still a reasonable choice to allocate some gold as a long-term hedge.
My investment advice is:
First, invest in gold regularly to smooth out fluctuations. By buying in batches, you can reduce the impact of market sentiment on investment. At the same time, you can flexibly adjust your positions. It is recommended that 5% -10% of your personal investment allocation is more reasonable.
Second, when personal investment risks are clear, appropriately improve the asset utilization of gold. Traditional gold can only be stored and cannot generate interest, but through gold tokens (such as XAUm), you can pledge loans in exchange for stablecoins, invest in other assets, improve capital efficiency, and retain gold exposure.
In summary: If investors have long-term risk aversion needs, now is still a good time to allocate gold; if you want to improve the utilization rate of funds, choosing gold tokens for pledge lending can make assets more valuable and put gold into motion to flexibly allocate assets.
