Original source: Biteye
Recently, RWA and Payfi have been mentioned again by the market. Are these two tracks just another round of narrative hype with old wine in new bottles, or are they the golden key that can really connect TradFi and DeFi and open up a trillion-dollar market?
We have reviewed 10 RWA projects that you cannot miss, and tried to deeply analyze several core issues in the RWA track.
1/11 @plumenetwork
Introduction: Plume is an EVM-compatible public chain designed by RWA, dedicated to promoting the digitization, circulation and composability of RWA. Through full-stack vertical integration technology, Plume supports the tokenization of assets such as real estate, commodities, and income rights, and achieves efficient collaboration with DeFi protocols to improve the liquidity and availability of assets. Its ecosystem has attracted more than 180 projects to join, and has obtained 3.75 million users and 265 million transactions in the test network stage.
Project progress how to participate: Plume currently focuses on building the core infrastructure for RWA asset on-chain, including smart contracts, tool sets and DeFi integration, and its service targets are mainly crypto users. In the future, Plume will gradually expand to diversified real-world asset scenarios (2025-2026), and plans to establish cooperation with traditional financial institutions to promote the integration of off-chain and on-chain assets and create a compliant, composable, user-centric RWA financial infrastructure.
2/11 @OndoFinance
Introduction: Ondo is a financial infrastructure platform dedicated to bringing traditional financial assets (such as US stocks, bonds, and ETFs) onto the chain. Its core product, Ondo Global Markets, provides 1:1 physically backed security tokens. Ondo also launched the Ondo Chain, a Layer 1 blockchain designed specifically for institutional finance, to implement mechanisms such as RWA pledge and native cross-chain communication, creating a compliant, secure, and efficient on-chain capital market environment, as well as a new generation of financial ecology connecting Wall Street and DeFi.
Project progress how to participate: Ondo Finances TVL recently exceeded $1 billion, consolidating its leading position in the field of US debt tokenization. At present, the global tokenized bond market has exceeded $5 billion, and Ondo occupies a core share. The JPMorgan report predicts that profitable stablecoins will occupy 50% of the stablecoin market, further confirming the growth potential of the Ondo model.
3/11 @humafinance
Introduction: Huma is a decentralized real-income platform deployed on Solana, which provides users with stable income driven by real-world payment financing activities through its PayFi network. Retail investors can participate in Huma 2.0. The platform supports Classic mode (10.5% USDC annualized) and Maxi mode (no annualized but high feather points), and issues tradable LP tokens $PST, which are compatible with DeFi protocols such as Jupiter.
Project progress how to participate: Visit the official website and connect to OKX Wallet (Solana network), and prepare $USDC. You can choose Classic (10.5% annualized) or Maxi mode (more Feather Points), select the staking amount and lock-up time and click Deposit. After staking, you will get PST or mPST tokens, which can be exchanged for USDC through Jupiter. mPST must be converted to PST first. It is recommended to pay attention to Feather Points, which may be a key indicator for airdrops. Link: https://app.huma.finance/?ref=KK3bhC
4/11 @noble_xyz
Introduction: Noble is a native asset issuance chain built on Cosmos SDK, focusing on the cross-chain issuance and circulation of stablecoins and RWA, and already supports native USDC. Nobles yield-earning USD stablecoin can earn an estimated annualized return of 4.2% by holding it, supported by a 103% collateralization rate of U.S. Treasury bonds to further unleash the potential of stablecoins. Noble plans to launch Noble AppLayer, a high-performance EVM Rollup based on Celestia, designed for native stablecoin applications, with a 100 ms block time and high throughput, supporting the composable liquidity of USDN stablecoins, and enabling payment, exchange, lending and other scenarios.
Project progress how to participate: Noble launched a four-month USDN points incentive campaign (currently 73 days away), where users deposit USDN into a designated points pool to accumulate points. First, cross-chain USDC from the EVM wallet (can be cross-chain on the official website) to the Noble chain of the Cosmos ecosystem, and exchange it for USDN (an interest-bearing stablecoin backed by short-term US debt). Second, choose a deposit pool. One pool only receives USDN interest, APY 13.7%, and does not participate in the points airdrop; the other pool gives up interest and focuses on earning Noble points (you need to stake for at least 1 month to get points, and there is no reward for early withdrawal). Choose a pool according to your needs to participate in Nobles points airdrop plan.
5/11 @MidasRWA
Introduction: The core of Midas is to identify, screen and introduce high-quality assets with attractive returns in the real world, especially relatively low-risk and stable-return assets such as U.S. Treasury bonds (T-Bills), and represent the ownership or income rights of these off-chain assets as tradable tokens on the blockchain (for example, its mTBILL token represents an investment in the underlying U.S. Treasury bonds). Through the Midas platform, users can conveniently invest in these real-world assets on the chain, obtain stable returns from traditional financial markets, and seamlessly integrate and use these assets in the DeFi ecosystem.
Project progress how to participate: Enter the Invest page to choose from 6 financial products, mEDGE, mMEV, mRe 7, mBASIS, mTBILL, and mBTC. After selecting, enter the USDT you want to deposit, and it will automatically exchange for the corresponding product. After the wallet confirms, the investment can be completed.
6/11 @convergeonchain
Introduction: Converge is a high-performance RWA public chain platform supported by Ethena and Securitize, aiming to promote the on-chain of institutional funds and realize the integration of real assets and DeFi. Its technical architecture is based on Arbitrum Orbit and Celestia, and uses USDe and USDtb as native Gas assets. Converge supports cross-language contract combinations of Rust and Solidity, and provides security for institutional funds through the ENA-driven Validator Network (CVN).
Project progress how to participate: Converge is about to launch a developer testnet, and has reached cooperation with leading protocols such as Aave, Pendle, and Morpho, and will first deploy applications based on Ethena and Securitize assets. The platform introduces technologies such as Stylus VM and Mini-block Streaming to achieve ultra-high performance, and strengthens asset security through the ENA staking-driven validator network. The core sub-project Ethereal DEX will support CEX-level matching rates, and is expected to process millions of orders per second, becoming an on-chain high-frequency trading infrastructure. The mainnet is expected to be launched in the next few months.
7/11 @superstatefunds
Introduction: Superstate is an Ethereum-based government bond fund that aims to issue short-term U.S. Treasury products in a tokenized form. Its first product, USTB, is aimed at qualified investors. The fund will invest in short-term U.S. Treasury bonds and charge a management fee of 15 basis points. It supports self-custody and multiple security solutions (such as multi-signature, MPC, EOA), and is provided with custody and asset management services by Anchorage Digital and BitGo. Superstate combines existing U.S. securities regulations and is committed to improving the composability and liquidity of Treasury assets on the chain. It is an important infrastructure for connecting traditional financial assets to the DeFi ecosystem.
Project progress how to participate: There is no airdrop expectation, and the first product USTB is for qualified investors. The underlying assets of USTB are short-term US Treasury bonds (T-Bills), which are a type of fixed-income asset with high liquidity and the highest credit rating. Superstate packages these assets into fund shares and issues them on the chain in the form of tokens. The goal of USTB is to provide users with a low-risk, stable-return on-chain asset option. USTB is not open to all users. Its issuance structure follows the framework of US securities laws and is only open to qualified investors (Qualified Purchasers). This means that the threshold for participation is high.
8/11 @Securitize
Introduction: Securitize is a digital securities platform focusing on RWA tokenization. It is committed to introducing traditional high-threshold assets such as real estate, artworks, and bonds into the blockchain in a compliant manner to achieve fragmented holding and secondary circulation. The platform has obtained the SEC registered transfer agent qualification and cooperates with institutions such as BlackRock and Coinbase to provide ordinary investors with compliant, transparent, and liquid alternative investment channels. Securitize does not issue platform coins, but supports the issuance of project tokens on its platform. It is one of the key infrastructures for promoting the on-chainization of institutional-level assets.
Project progress how to participate: Since its establishment in 2017, it has been registered with the SEC, issued the worlds first batch of credit rating and index-based tokenized securities, and cooperated with institutions such as BlackRock and Apollo. BlackRock launched the BUIDL fund in March 2024. In 2025, the scale of the BUIDL fund exceeded US$1 billion, and it obtained the CNMV investment company license and continued to expand into the European and American markets. There is no airdrop expectation for the time being. You can invest in the platform after passing KYC, but the review and investment standards are stricter than those of general cryptocurrency projects.
9/11 @BackedFi
Introduction: Backed Finance is a project that tokenizes RWAs, such as US stocks, ETFs, and treasury bonds, in a compliant manner and introduces them to the blockchain. Each token issued by the platform (such as bTSLA, bGOOGL, and bCSPX) is backed by an equivalent physical asset at a 1:1 ratio and is kept by a licensed custodian, supporting on-chain transactions, self-custody, and asset redemption for non-US qualified investors. Backed currently has a variety of targets online, including Microsoft, Google, Tesla, and US Treasury ETFs. The tokens are compatible with the full-chain ERC-20 standard and can be used in DeFi mortgages, lending, portfolio investments, and other scenarios. The project operates based on the Swiss regulatory framework and has been selected by Arbitrum DAO as one of the treasury bond allocation targets.
Project progress participation method: No airdrop is expected yet, and the product is for qualified investors. Private individuals must be able to declare holdings of at least CHF 500,000 in assets and have sufficient expertise or experience; or hold at least CHF 2,000,000 in fundable assets. Backed professional customers who have passed KYC can directly exchange Backed tokens with NAV + fees.
10/11 @DinariGlobal
Introduction: Dinari is a compliant infrastructure platform that focuses on tokenizing traditional securities assets (such as stocks, bonds, and ETFs). Through its core product dShare, assets such as US stocks are issued on-chain in the form of 1:1 supported ERC-20 tokens. After completing KYC, users can directly purchase dShares with stablecoins to achieve on-chain transactions, self-custody, and dividend distribution. Dinari has SEC registered transfer agent qualifications and cooperates with regulated custodians to ensure asset security and compliance.
Project progress how to participate: Dinari will launch nearly 100 dShares, USD+ stablecoins, cross-chain support and API cooperation solutions in 2024, and continue to promote RWA assets on the chain. First, complete KYC verification and provide proof of residence to meet regulatory requirements, use stablecoins such as USDC and USDT for transactions, purchase corresponding securities assets in the corresponding securities market, and you can see the corresponding dShares in your wallet. If the corresponding securities assets pay dividends, Dinari will convert the dividends into USDC and distribute them to the users wallet.
11/11
In short, for ordinary crypto users, there are several ways to participate in the current RWA project: directly purchase leading $ONDO and $PLUME tokens to bet on the track; deposit coins in Huma, Midas, and Noble to earn interest and win airdrop opportunities; and interact with Converge to win airdrops. However, due to strict KYC or high thresholds, projects such as Superstate, Securitize, Backed, and Dinari are extremely difficult to participate.
In addition, the RWA track still faces challenges at this stage, such as:
1. RWA’s “Impossible Triangle”: Compliance, Decentralization, and User Experience
Through project research, we found that almost all RWA projects that have emerged now cannot avoid KYC/AML, and even have strict geographical and qualification restrictions on investors (qualified investors). This in itself screens out a large number of DeFi native users. The so-called no permission required is often questionable in RWA. If RWA wants to really explode, it must find a clever balance in this impossible triangle. At present, most projects have chosen to lean towards compliance and TradFi logic, which limits their native integration potential in the DeFi world.
2. How to break through the path dependence of U.S. bonds and stocks?
At present, the most successful RWA application is the tokenization of US Treasury bonds and US stocks, but this is more like stablecoin 2.0 or on-chaining of US dollar interest-bearing instruments. US Treasury bond RWA is a successful start. The real blue ocean lies in liberating those assets with poor liquidity, non-standard, and difficult to reach real assets through blockchain technology and giving them DeFi composability. This is the most exciting narrative of RWA, but it is also the most difficult to achieve.
3. How to achieve deep composability of RWA assets?
Tokenizing assets is only the first step, and achieving composability will be much more difficult. The same type of RWA issued by different platforms (for example, all tokenized U.S. bonds) has different standards and is likely to be incompatible with each other. So is it possible to realize that RWA assets can be freely transferred and combined between DeFi protocols like $ETH and $USDC, creating new ways of playing, using tokenized real estate as collateral for lending, and then investing in liquidity mining in other protocols, etc.
