Crypto investors rejoiced this week after the US Securities and Exchange Commission dismissed one of the crypto industry’s most controversial lawsuits — one that resulted in an over four-year legal battle with Ripple Labs.

In another significant regulatory development, Solana-based futures exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have debuted in the US, a move that may signal the approval of spot Solana (SOL) ETFs as the “next logical step” for lawmakers.

SEC’s XRP reversal a “victory for the industry”: Ripple CEO

The SEC’s dismissal of its years-long lawsuit against Ripple Labs, the developer of the XRP Ledger blockchain network, is a “victory for the industry,” Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said at Blockworks’ 2025 Digital Asset Summit in New York.

On March 19, Garlinghouse revealed that the SEC would dismiss its legal action against Ripple, ending four years of litigation against the blockchain developer for an alleged $1.3-billion unregistered securities offering in 2020.

“It feels like a victory for the industry and the beginning of a new chapter,” Garlinghouse said on March 19 at the Summit, which Cointelegraph attended. 

Ripple’s CEO said the SEC is dropping its case against the blockchain developer. Source: Brad Garlinghouse

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Solana futures ETF to grow institutional adoption, despite limited inflows

The crypto industry is set to debut the first SOL futures ETF, a significant development that may pave the way for the first spot SOL ETF as the “next logical step” for crypto-based trading products, according to industry watchers.

Volatility Shares is launching two SOL futures ETFs, the Volatility Shares Solana ETF (SOLZ) and the Volatility Shares 2X Solana ETF (SOLT), on March 20.

Volatility Shares Solana ETF SEC filing. Source: SEC

The debut of the first SOL futures ETF may bring significant new institutional adoption for the SOL token, according to Ryan Lee, chief analyst at Bitget Research.

The analyst told Cointelegraph: 

“The launch of the first Solana ETFs in the US could significantly boost Solana’s market position by increasing demand and liquidity for SOL, potentially narrowing the gap with Ethereum’s market cap.”

The Solana ETF will grow institutional adoption by “offering a regulated investment vehicle, attracting billions in capital and reinforcing Solana’s competitiveness against Ethereum,” said Lee, adding that “Ethereum’s entrenched ecosystem remains a formidable barrier.”

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Pump.fun launches own DEX, drops Raydium

Pump.fun has launched its own decentralized exchange (DEX) called PumpSwap, potentially displacing Raydium as the primary trading venue for Solana-based memecoins. 

Starting on March 20, memecoins that successfully bootstrap liquidity, or “bond,” on Pump.fun will migrate directly to PumpSwap, Pump.fun said in an X post. 

Previously, bonded Pump.fun tokens migrated to Raydium, which emerged as Solana’s most popular DEX, largely thanks to memecoin trading activity. 

According to Pump.fun, PumpSwap “functions similarly to Raydium V4 and Uniswap V2” and is designed “to create the most frictionless environment for trading coins.”

“Migrations were a major point of friction – they slow a coin’s momentum and introduce needless complexity for new users,” Pump.fun said.

“Now, migrations happen instantly and for free.”

Raydium’s trading volumes surged in 2024, largely due to memecoins. Source: DefiLlama

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Bybit: 89% of stolen $1.4B crypto still traceable post-hack

The lion’s share of the hacked Bybit funds is still traceable after the historic cybertheft, with blockchain investigators continuing their efforts to freeze and recover the funds.

The crypto industry was rocked by the largest hack in history on Feb. 21 when Bybit lost over $1.4 billion in liquid-staked Ether (stETH), Mantle Staked ETH (mETH) and other digital assets.

Blockchain security firms, including Arkham Intelligence, have identified North Korea’s Lazarus Group as the likely culprit behind the Bybit exploit as the attackers continue swapping the funds in an effort to make them untraceable.

Despite the Lazarus Group’s efforts, over 88% of the stolen $1.4 billion remains traceable, according to Ben Zhou, co-founder and CEO of crypto exchange Bybit.

The CEO wrote in a March 20 X post:

“Total hacked funds of USD 1.4bn around 500k ETH. 88.87% remain traceable, 7.59% have gone dark, 3.54% have been frozen.”

“86.29% (440,091 ETH, ~$1.23B) have been converted into 12,836 BTC across 9,117 wallets (Average 1.41 BTC each),” said the CEO, adding that the funds were mainly funneled through Bitcoin (BTC) mixers, including Wasbi, CryptoMixer, Railgun and Tornado Cash.

Source: Ben Zhou

The CEO’s update comes nearly a month after the exchange was hacked. It took the Lazarus Group 10 days to move 100% of the stolen funds through the decentralized crosschain protocol THORChain, Cointelegraph reported on March 4.

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Libra, Melania creator’s “Wolf of Wall Street” memecoin crashes 99%

The creator of the Libra token has launched another memecoin with some of the same concerning onchain patterns that pointed to significant insider trading activity ahead of the coin’s 99% collapse.

Hayden Davis, co-creator of the Official Melania Meme (MELANIA) and Libra tokens, has launched a new Solana-based memecoin with an over 80% insider supply.

Davis launched the Wolf (WOLF) memecoin on March 8, banking on rumors of Jordan Belfort, known as the Wolf of Wall Street, launching his own token.

The token reached a peak $42 million market cap. However, 82% of WOLF’s supply was bundled under the same entity, according to a March 15 X post by Bubblemaps, which wrote:

“The bubble map revealed something strange — $WOLF had the same pattern as $HOOD, a token launched by Hayden Davis. Was he behind this one too?”

Source: Bubblemaps

The blockchain analytics platform revealed transfers across 17 different addresses, stemming back to the address “OxcEAe,” owned by Davis.

“He funded these wallets months before $LIBRA and $WOLF launched, moving money through 17 addresses and 2 chains,” Bubblemaps added.

Source: Bubblemaps

The Wolf memecoin lost over 99% of its value within two days, from the peak $42.9 million market capitalization on March 8 to just $570,000 by March 16, Dexscreener data shows.

Continue reading

DeFi market overview

According to Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView data, most of the 100 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization ended the week in the green.

Of the top 100, the BNB Chain-native Four (FORM) token rose over 110% as the week’s biggest gainer, followed by PancakeSwap’s CAKE (CAKE) token, up over 48% on the weekly chart.

Total value locked in DeFi. Source: DefiLlama

Thanks for reading our summary of this week’s most impactful DeFi developments. Join us next Friday for more stories, insights and education regarding this dynamically advancing space.

The Trump administration appears poised to grow its Strategic Bitcoin Reserve after the White House’s crypto council head suggested budget-neutral ways for acquiring the digital asset. 

“There’s been countless ideas” about how the government can acquire more Bitcoin (BTC), Bo Hines, executive director of the President’s Council of Advisers on Digital Assets, said in an interview with the Crypto in America podcast. 

Bo Hines said the crypto council is open to creative ways to build the government’s Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. Source: Eleanor Terrett

Perhaps the best way of doing so would be to realize the gains on the government’s gold certificates, which are priced far less than bullion is actually worth today. 

“I’ll actually point you to Senator [Cynthia] Lummis’ Bitcoin Act of 2025, in which she believes that we can identify the real true value of some of these gold certificates,” Hines said. 

“If we actually realize the gains on [these holdings], that would be a budget-neutral way to acquire more Bitcoin,” he said.

As the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis explains, all gold certificates held at Fed banks are “computed at a statutory price of $42.22 per troy ounce.” By comparison, spot gold is currently valued at more than $3,000 an ounce. 

The spot gold price has rallied 40% over the past year. Source: Kitco

Senator Cynthia Lummis’ proposed BITCOIN Act of 2025 lists “Federal Reserve System gold certificates” as one source of funding for Bitcoin purchases. 

The bill requires that Fed banks “tender all outstanding gold certificates in their custody to the Treasury Secretary” so that the secretary can issue new certificates “that reflect the fair market value price of the gold held against such certificates by the Treasury.”

Hines said he’s open to any ideas about how to grow the reserve, so long as it “doesn’t cost the taxpayer a dime.” That’s the crux of budget-neutral strategies for acquiring Bitcoin laid out in President Donald Trump’s March 6 executive order. 

“With all the inter-agency working group actors that will convene in these meetings, I mean, we’re going to hear some tremendous ideas about how we can do it. I just don’t want to box us in yet to what that actually looks like because I want to be able to hear from everybody.”

The US government currently holds roughly 207,000 BTC seized in criminal and civil proceedings. By default, this makes America the largest known Bitcoin holder among nation-states. 

Bitcoin holdings by nation-state. Source: Bitbo

Related: US stablecoin bill likely in ‘next 2 months’ — Trump’s crypto council head

Bitcoin’s special status

During the interview, Hines reiterated Bitcoin’s special status, suggesting that the White House crypto council was treating the strategic reserve and digital asset stockpile very differently. 

“The reason we structured the [Strategic Bitcoin Reserve] the way we did is because Bitcoin is different. It’s unique; it’s a commodity, not a security,” said Hines, adding:

“David [Sacks] likes to say it has the immaculate conception, meaning there’s no issuer. It has intrinsic stored value, and it’s traditionally accepted store of value as well. We wanted to make that distinction [between stockpile and reserve].”

The White House rushed to defend Bitcoin’s special status shortly after President Trump announced plans for a digital asset stockpile, which included a smattering of large-cap altcoins. Even Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick clarified that Bitcoin would be treated differently from the rest of the altcoins listed.

Trump, pictured alongside White House crypto czar David Sacks and Bo Hines, signs an executive order establishing the Bitcoin Strategic Reserve. Source: David Sacks

In addition to its Bitcoin acquisition targets, the Trump administration is making significant headway on cryptocurrency legislation through bipartisan cooperation. 

According to Representative Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, Congress should be able to pass a stablecoin bill and crypto market structure bill this year. 

Speaking at the Digital Asset Summit in New York, Ro Khanna (right) said there are between 70 and 80 Democrat lawmakers who now understand the importance of stablecoin legislation. Source: Cointelegraph

Magazine: Unstablecoins: Depegging, bank runs and other risks loom

US President Donald Trump wants to make his country a “Bitcoin superpower,” but the question remains as to who he is competing against. 

Speaking at Blockwork’s Digital Asset Summit on March 20 to a crowd of crypto industry executives and observers, he said, “Together we will make America the undisputed Bitcoin (BTC) superpower and the crypto capital of the world.”

The US crypto industry has benefited greatly from preferential executive orders coming out of Trump’s White House, including the establishment of a “strategic Bitcoin reserve” — a move advocates regard as a key metric for Bitcoin adoption.

However, many other countries, including major US trade partners, are just not ready to take on Bitcoin as a reserve asset, begging the question of who the US is competing against to become a “Bitcoin superpower.”

US allies, trade partners and rivals aren’t competing on Bitcoin

Compared to major trade partners and geopolitical rivals, the US is certainly far ahead of the game in terms of Bitcoin adoption. Neither the European Union, China, Mexico nor Canada have taken such drastic steps toward institutionalizing the asset.

China, the US’ largest trade partner by far and also its most prominent geopolitical opponent, has taken a strong stance against the asset, initially banning it outright before softening its approach slightly. China now allows mining operations but strictly prohibits the use of Bitcoin.

Overall, the government has preferred to concentrate its efforts on developing a retail central bank digital currency in the form of the digital yuan. 

The European Union, another major US trade partner, passed its Markets in Crypto-Assets regulatory framework in May 2023, which came into full implementation by member states at the end of 2024. 

While the EU is ahead of the US in terms of passing concrete legislation, it offers far less preferential terms to the industry than those expected in the US’ parallel legislation currently circulating in Congress.

Crypto user penetration in the EU is expected to remain essentially stagnant this year, and cryptocurrency’s popularity is low overall among its wealthiest economies. No member state has a Bitcoin reserve.

Even in crypto-friendly Switzerland, which saw $52.4 billion in US service exports in 2024, there are limits to crypto endorsement and adoption. On March 1, Swiss National Bank President Martin Schlegel said Bitcoin wasn’t suitable as a reserve asset, citing stability, liquidity concerns and security risks.

Germany’s central bank chief, Joachim Nagel, has also dismissed the idea of a Bitcoin reserve, while Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has previously criticized Bitcoin as being a poor form of money. 

Related: What Canada’s new Liberal PM Mark Carney means for crypto

South Korea doesn’t feel ready to hold Bitcoin as a reserve asset, with the Bank of Korea stating that BTC is volatile and does not meet International Monetary Fund standards. 

Russia, for its part, has allowed crypto to be used in international settlements to circumvent sanctions. The central bank is also preparing a three-year experiment to allow select investors to trade crypto. Some legal scholars in the country have suggested establishing a crypto fund consisting of assets seized in criminal proceedings, although the Duma has yet to form one.

Critics and proponents lambast “strategic Bitcoin Reserve” 

Critics have questioned the strategic value of the US Bitcoin reserve and who it benefits in the long run. 

Cornell economics professor Eswar Prasad said, “This is neither a strategic nor sensible idea but instead benefits bitcoin holders while sticking US taxpayers with the bill and exposing the government to financial risks. The US government would become a key driver of bitcoin’s price on the way up and down.”

As noted by TLDR News, the point of most strategic reserves is to stock commodities that are deemed critically important to the function of a country’s economy. Governments can also create them to stabilize the price of goods that are in high demand. The US has strategic reserves of oil and grain, while China even has a strategic pork stockpile. 

The Bitcoin strategic reserve does neither of these, as there is no great demand among Americans for Bitcoin, and Bitcoiners certainly don’t want the price to remain stable. 

George Selgin, a senior fellow and director emeritus at the Cato Institute’s Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives, said the reserve’s stated goal of helping pay off US national debt was unrealistic.

“The plan’s million-coin stash would have to more than double in value during its 20-year holding period just to compensate for the plan’s implicit interest cost. Second, the stockpile must eventually be sold to realize the gains, and you can bet that the same bitcoin holders who have managed to get the government to keep the bitcoin it already has will cry foul if it ever tries to sell any new coins it acquires,” he stated.

Claims of it serving as a digital Fort Knox are “just as dubious,” he said, as the gold contained therein hasn’t propped up the value of the dollar since Richard Nixon was president and took the dollar off of the gold standard. 

Even Bitcoiners have taken a crack at the reserve. Charles Edwards, founder of Bitcoin and digital asset hedge fund Capriole Investments, criticized the “hold only” policy of the reserve, calling it “disappointing” and a “pig in lipstick.”

Source: Charles Edwards

The reserve even proved to be something of a non-starter for Bitcoin price, with price action remaining relatively stable after Trump signed the executive order on March 6. 

As it stands, the US is leading a race that no one else is running. But things could change quickly. Right-wing parties sympathetic to the creation of Bitcoin reserves have been on the rise in European elections. 

Brazil, a major economy in the Western hemisphere, has also been weighing the possibility of a Bitcoin reserve. 

Furthermore, the US Bitcoin reserve allows the Treasury to purchase Bitcoin so long as it can do so in a budget-neutral manner that doesn’t come at a cost to taxpayers. The full effect of the reserve, and its influence on Bitcoin adoption, may yet be felt. 

Magazine: Memecoins are ded — But Solana ‘100x better’ despite revenue plunge

The US Treasury Department has dropped cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash from its sanctions list, the agency said on March 21. 

The removal follows a January ruling by a US appeals court, which said the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) cannot sanction Tornado’s smart contracts because they are not the property of any foreign national. 

According to the January court ruling, “Tornado Cash’s immutable smart contracts (the lines of privacy-enabling software code) are not the ‘property’ of a foreign national or entity, meaning […] OFAC overstepped its congressionally defined authority.”

In a March 21 statement, the Treasury said OFAC removed several dozen Tornado-affiliated smart contract addresses on the Ethereum blockchain network from its sanctions list. 

Tornado’s native token, Tornado Cash (TORN), is up around 60% on the news, according to data from CoinMarketCap. 

As of March 21, TORN has a market capitalization of around $73 million and a fully diluted value (FDV) of nearly $140 million, data shows. 

OFAC is the Treasury’s office for administering economic and trade sanctions on states and foreign nationals.

Tornado Cash lets users pool crypto deposits into a mixer and then withdraw it later to different wallet addresses, making the original funding source difficult to track.

TORN is up around 60% on the news. Source: CoinMarketCap

Related: Tornado Cash dev Alexey Pertsev’s bail a ‘crucial step’ in getting fair trial, defense says

Money laundering allegations

In August 2022, OFAC sanctioned Tornado Cash after alleging the blockchain protocol helped launder cryptocurrency stolen by Lazarus Group, a North Korean hacking outfit. 

Lazarus Group has allegedly stolen billions of dollars in crypto through various cyberattacks.

In February, Lazarus was accused of pilfering $1.4 billion from digital asset exchange Bybit in the largest-ever crypto exploit. 

In total, Tornado Cash has purportedly facilitated the laundering of more than $7 billion in illicit funds since the protocol was launched in 2019, according to the US Treasury.

In 2024, a Dutch court found Alexey Pertsev, one of Tornado Cash’s developers, guilty of money laundering and sentenced him to 64 months in prison. 

In February, Pertsev was released on house arrest, while he prepared an appeal of his conviction. 

The Ethereum Foundation has pledged to donate $1.25 million for Pertsev’s defense. 

“Privacy is normal, and writing code is not a crime,” the EF wrote in an X post while announcing the donation on Feb. 26.

Magazine: Did Telegram’s Pavel Durov commit a crime? Crypto lawyers weigh in

BaFin, the German financial regulatory authority, has prohibited all public sales of Ethena GmbH’s USDe — a synthetic dollar — claiming that the token violates the European Union’s MiCAR regulations.

According to the announcement from the regulator, BaFin has ordered the firm to freeze the reserve assets that back the token, close down the website portal, and has ordered the firm to stop taking new customers. In a translated statement, the regulator wrote:

“The BaFin also has reasonable grounds to suspect that Ethena GmbH in Germany sells securities in the form of sUSDe  tokens from Ethena OpCo. Ltd. without the required prospectus.”

“The USDe and sUSDe tokens are interconnected in such a way that investors can receive a sUSDe token in exchange for a USDe token,” the regulator continued.

Despite the ban on primary sales and issuance of the token, the regulator said that secondary sales of the token will not be prohibited or affected. However, redemption via the Ethena GmbH exchange has been temporarily blocked by the regulator.

Source: Ethena Labs

Ethena GmbH files for MiCA approval

Ethena GmbH submitted a request for regulatory approval under MiCA on July 29, 2024, and the firm expected to be “grandfathered” into the existing regulatory framework.

However, BaFin denied the application, citing “serious deficiencies in the business organization” and a lack of compliance with the MiCA framework.

BaFin acknowledged that there are currently around 5.4 billion Ethena tokens in circulation. However, many of these tokens were minted outside of the German jurisdiction and before MiCA took effect.This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.

BaFin, the German financial regulatory authority, has prohibited all public sales of Ethena GmbH’s USDe (USDe) — a synthetic dollar — claiming the token violates the European Union’s MiCAR regulations and accused the firm of selling unregistered securities in the region.

BaFin told Ethena to freeze the reserve assets that back the token, close down the website portal, and ordered the firm to stop taking new customers, the regulator wrote in an announcement.

BaFin also appointed a representative to monitor the ongoing situation with Ethena. In a translated statement, the regulator wrote:

“The BaFin also has reasonable grounds to suspect that Ethena GmbH in Germany sells securities in the form of sUSDe tokens from Ethena OpCo. Ltd. without the required prospectus.”

“The USDe and sUSDe tokens are interconnected in such a way that investors can receive a sUSDe token in exchange for a USDe token,” the statement reads.

Despite the ban on primary sales and issuance of the token, secondary sales of the token will not be prohibited or affected, the regulator said. In a statement on X, Ethena Labs said the backing of USDe remains unaffected, and the token can still be redeemed via Ethena BVI Limited.

Source: Ethena Labs

Ethena GmbH files for MiCA approval

Ethena submitted a request for regulatory approval under MiCA on July 29, 2024, and the firm expected to be “grandfathered” into the existing regulatory framework.

However, BaFin denied the application on March 21, citing “serious deficiencies in the business organization” and a lack of compliance with the MiCA framework.

BaFin acknowledged that there are currently around 5.4 billion Ethena tokens in circulation. However, many of these tokens were minted outside of German jurisdiction before MiCA took effect.

Ethena attracts investment for its products

Ethena continues to attract institutional investment for its products, risks associated with synthetic dollars notwithstanding.

Ethena raised over $100 million from investors in February 2024 to launch a new token called iUSDe geared toward institutional investors.

The firm also partnered with World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol started by US President Donald Trump in December 2024.

As part of the agreement, World Liberty Financial purchased 500,000 ENA tokens — the governance token of Ethena.

On Feb. 26, the MEXC crypto exchange announced a $20 million investment in Ethena’s USDe to promote stablecoin use.

Magazine: Unstablecoins: Depegging, bank runs and other risks loom

Opinion by: Abdul Rafay Gadit, co-founder of ZIGChain

America’s tariff regime has apparently fueled a global trade war, forcing investors to explore stable, yield-generating alternatives. A closer look reveals that illiquidity, opacity and scalability challenges have plagued global financial markets for long. They weren’t in great shape anyway, trade war or no trade war.

Tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) have risen to this occasion — thankfully. For one, they ensure predictable yields, providing a haven for investors amid uncertain market conditions and unproductive volatility. 

Above all, though, RWAs are a lifeboat for legacy finance, as they enhance market liquidity, bring transparency to opaque markets, and make finance more democratic. Traditional financial markets need to integrate — not resist — RWAs to stay relevant in the coming decade. 

RWAs to the rescue

In legacy finance, capital’s “computability” occurs through slow, expensive and unreliable intermediaries like banks. For example, these entities are primarily unable to rebalance portfolios quickly. 

This limits market scope, and consumers bear significant losses. There are persistent trust issues across the board, while fund managers face immense administrative burdens in handling clients. The bottom line: Everyone suffers, except the value-sucking go-betweens. 

That’s a big reason fundraising in private equity, a key pillar of global financial markets, declined 24% in 2024, per McKinsey’s report. Likewise, as the SIFMA 2025 Capital Markets Outlook revealed, US equity issuance has decreased by 0.6% annually since 2020. Initial public offerings have been down 8.5% during this period. 

RWAs fix these. They make portfolio management more straightforward and seamless, with scalable capital deployment even in turbulent markets. 

Tokenization automates verifiable transactions, enabling precise, deterministic, trustless economies — turning the status quo on its head. It also provides investors with low-risk, low-cost and rapid access to existing and emerging global financial markets. 

Recent: 5 ways real-world asset tokenization is transforming TradFi

No wonder onchain RWAs increased 85% to over $15 billion in 2024. And this trend still has momentum. RWAs are poised to remain a top investment category in crypto.

RWAs reached a new all-time high recently, surpassing $17 billion, with over 82,000 asset holders. Notably, tokenized private credit is the largest asset in the RWA industry, with over $11 billion in valuation. 

It’s clear that investors chose RWAs in the face of a $10-billion liquidation and general, persistent market volatility. Moreover, this asset class is making private credit great again, laying the foundation for future financial markets.

“Smart money” bets on RWAs 

JPMorgan, BlackRock, UBS, Citi, Goldman Sachs — all the big names in legacy finance have moved into RWAs. Capital inflows from such “smart money” entities helped onchain private credit grow 40% last year, while tokenized treasuries surged 179% overall.

All this could very well be routine diversification and capital expansion. But funds like Franklin Templeton’s Franklin Onchain US Government Money Fund (FOBXX) and BlackRock’s US dollar Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) signal a more long-term motive. 

Initiatives like FOBXX and BUIDL are focused on transforming money markets through lower settlement times, easier liquidity access, better trading environments and other improvements. 

They leverage tokenization to introduce novel yield-generating opportunities in traditionally illiquid markets like the private credit sector. As data from PricewaterhouseCoopers suggests, this could be a $1.5-trillion disruption. S&P Global also believes private credit tokenization is the “new digital frontier” that solves liquidity and transparency issues.

RWAs are thus emerging as a viable, more lucrative alternative for institutional investors, who control nearly one-fourth of the $450-trillion legacy financial market. That’s a strong enough waking sign — plus there’s increasing demand from “retail” users (i.e., the remaining three-fourths of the pie).

Retail is the end-game for RWAs

Institutional adoption is excellent for building initial awareness around RWAs. Like it or not, their actions move the needle. In the long run, however, individual retail users stand to benefit most from RWAs. 

RWAs make capital markets accessible to grassroots investors, including unbanked populations. Fractional ownership, for instance, lets those with smaller capital holdings get exposure to high-ticket assets otherwise reserved for wealthy family offices and institutions.

Because of these benefits, retail users will choose RWAs over traditional, exclusive financial assets and markets. And now it’s a no-brainer for them, thanks to solutions like social investing platforms, which give users intuitive, hassle-free access to novel financial opportunities. 

Multiple reports from Mastercard to Tren Finance and VanEck showcase RWAs’ massive growth potential. It could be anywhere between $50 billion and $30 trillion over the next four to five years. 

Widespread retail adoption will drive this growth, and unless traditional markets adapt or adopt RWAs, they will lose the vast majority of their users. With institutional and retail capital moving into this emerging sector, it’s genuinely do-or-die for legacy systems.

Robust tools and platforms that leverage RWAs to bridge the gap between traditional and emerging financial markets are available now. That makes it a question of intent and priority more than anything else. 

Catch up or become obsolete — that’s the message. It’s the wartime arc, as it has been long due. The best part is that legacy assets coming onchain and markets leveraging RWAs will be a win-win for issuers, institutions and retail users. That’s what the world needs from a financial standpoint. It’s worth all the effort.

Opinion by: Abdul Rafay Gadit, co-founder of ZIGChain.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Opinion by: Abdul Rafay Gadit, co-founder of ZIGChain

America’s tariff regime has apparently fueled a global trade war, forcing investors to explore stable, yield-generating alternatives. A closer look reveals that illiquidity, opacity and scalability challenges have plagued global financial markets for long. They weren’t in great shape anyway, trade war or no trade war.

Tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) have risen to this occasion — thankfully. For one, they ensure predictable yields, providing a haven for investors amid uncertain market conditions and unproductive volatility. 

Above all, though, RWAs are a lifeboat for legacy finance, as they enhance market liquidity, bring transparency to opaque markets, and make finance more democratic. Traditional financial markets need to integrate — not resist — RWAs to stay relevant in the coming decade. 

RWAs to the rescue

In legacy finance, capital’s “computability” occurs through slow, expensive and unreliable intermediaries like banks. For example, these entities are primarily unable to rebalance portfolios quickly. 

This limits market scope, and consumers bear significant losses. There are persistent trust issues across the board, while fund managers face immense administrative burdens in handling clients. The bottom line: Everyone suffers, except the value-sucking go-betweens. 

That’s a big reason fundraising in private equity, a key pillar of global financial markets, declined 24% in 2024, per McKinsey’s report. Likewise, as the SIFMA 2025 Capital Markets Outlook revealed, US equity issuance has decreased by 0.6% annually since 2020. Initial public offerings have been down 8.5% during this period. 

RWAs fix these. They make portfolio management more straightforward and seamless, with scalable capital deployment even in turbulent markets. 

Tokenization automates verifiable transactions, enabling precise, deterministic, trustless economies — turning the status quo on its head. It also provides investors with low-risk, low-cost and rapid access to existing and emerging global financial markets. 

Recent: 5 ways real-world asset tokenization is transforming TradFi

No wonder onchain RWAs increased 85% to over $15 billion in 2024. And this trend still has momentum. RWAs are poised to remain a top investment category in crypto.

RWAs reached a new all-time high recently, surpassing $17 billion, with over 82,000 asset holders. Notably, tokenized private credit is the largest asset in the RWA industry, with over $11 billion in valuation. 

It’s clear that investors chose RWAs in the face of a $10-billion liquidation and general, persistent market volatility. Moreover, this asset class is making private credit great again, laying the foundation for future financial markets.

“Smart money” bets on RWAs 

JPMorgan, BlackRock, UBS, Citi, Goldman Sachs — all the big names in legacy finance have moved into RWAs. Capital inflows from such “smart money” entities helped onchain private credit grow 40% last year, while tokenized treasuries surged 179% overall.

All this could very well be routine diversification and capital expansion. But funds like Franklin Templeton’s Franklin Onchain US Government Money Fund (FOBXX) and BlackRock’s US dollar Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) signal a more long-term motive. 

Initiatives like FOBXX and BUIDL are focused on transforming money markets through lower settlement times, easier liquidity access, better trading environments and other improvements. 

They leverage tokenization to introduce novel yield-generating opportunities in traditionally illiquid markets like the private credit sector. As data from PricewaterhouseCoopers suggests, this could be a $1.5-trillion disruption. S&P Global also believes private credit tokenization is the “new digital frontier” that solves liquidity and transparency issues.

RWAs are thus emerging as a viable, more lucrative alternative for institutional investors, who control nearly one-fourth of the $450-trillion legacy financial market. That’s a strong enough waking sign — plus there’s increasing demand from “retail” users (i.e., the remaining three-fourths of the pie).

Retail is the end-game for RWAs

Institutional adoption is excellent for building initial awareness around RWAs. Like it or not, their actions move the needle. In the long run, however, individual retail users stand to benefit most from RWAs. 

RWAs make capital markets accessible to grassroots investors, including unbanked populations. Fractional ownership, for instance, lets those with smaller capital holdings get exposure to high-ticket assets otherwise reserved for wealthy family offices and institutions.

Because of these benefits, retail users will choose RWAs over traditional, exclusive financial assets and markets. And now it’s a no-brainer for them, thanks to solutions like social investing platforms, which give users intuitive, hassle-free access to novel financial opportunities. 

Multiple reports from Mastercard to Tren Finance and VanEck showcase RWAs’ massive growth potential. It could be anywhere between $50 billion and $30 trillion over the next four to five years. 

Widespread retail adoption will drive this growth, and unless traditional markets adapt or adopt RWAs, they will lose the vast majority of their users. With institutional and retail capital moving into this emerging sector, it’s genuinely do-or-die for legacy systems.

Robust tools and platforms that leverage RWAs to bridge the gap between traditional and emerging financial markets are available now. That makes it a question of intent and priority more than anything else. 

Catch up or become obsolete — that’s the message. It’s the wartime arc, as it has been long due. The best part is that legacy assets coming onchain and markets leveraging RWAs will be a win-win for issuers, institutions and retail users. That’s what the world needs from a financial standpoint. It’s worth all the effort.

Opinion by: Abdul Rafay Gadit, co-founder of ZIGChain.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Opinion by: Abdul Rafay Gadit, co-founder of ZIGChain

America’s tariff regime has apparently fueled a global trade war, forcing investors to explore stable, yield-generating alternatives. A closer look reveals that illiquidity, opacity and scalability challenges have plagued global financial markets for long. They weren’t in great shape anyway, trade war or no trade war.

Tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) have risen to this occasion — thankfully. For one, they ensure predictable yields, providing a haven for investors amid uncertain market conditions and unproductive volatility. 

Above all, though, RWAs are a lifeboat for legacy finance, as they enhance market liquidity, bring transparency to opaque markets, and make finance more democratic. Traditional financial markets need to integrate — not resist — RWAs to stay relevant in the coming decade. 

RWAs to the rescue

In legacy finance, capital’s “computability” occurs through slow, expensive and unreliable intermediaries like banks. For example, these entities are primarily unable to rebalance portfolios quickly. 

This limits market scope, and consumers bear significant losses. There are persistent trust issues across the board, while fund managers face immense administrative burdens in handling clients. The bottom line: Everyone suffers, except the value-sucking go-betweens. 

That’s a big reason fundraising in private equity, a key pillar of global financial markets, declined 24% in 2024, per McKinsey’s report. Likewise, as the SIFMA 2025 Capital Markets Outlook revealed, US equity issuance has decreased by 0.6% annually since 2020. Initial public offerings have been down 8.5% during this period. 

RWAs fix these. They make portfolio management more straightforward and seamless, with scalable capital deployment even in turbulent markets. 

Tokenization automates verifiable transactions, enabling precise, deterministic, trustless economies — turning the status quo on its head. It also provides investors with low-risk, low-cost and rapid access to existing and emerging global financial markets. 

Recent: 5 ways real-world asset tokenization is transforming TradFi

No wonder onchain RWAs increased 85% to over $15 billion in 2024. And this trend still has momentum. RWAs are poised to remain a top investment category in crypto.

RWAs reached a new all-time high recently, surpassing $17 billion, with over 82,000 asset holders. Notably, tokenized private credit is the largest asset in the RWA industry, with over $11 billion in valuation. 

It’s clear that investors chose RWAs in the face of a $10-billion liquidation and general, persistent market volatility. Moreover, this asset class is making private credit great again, laying the foundation for future financial markets.

“Smart money” bets on RWAs 

JPMorgan, BlackRock, UBS, Citi, Goldman Sachs — all the big names in legacy finance have moved into RWAs. Capital inflows from such “smart money” entities helped onchain private credit grow 40% last year, while tokenized treasuries surged 179% overall.

All this could very well be routine diversification and capital expansion. But funds like Franklin Templeton’s Franklin Onchain US Government Money Fund (FOBXX) and BlackRock’s US dollar Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) signal a more long-term motive. 

Initiatives like FOBXX and BUIDL are focused on transforming money markets through lower settlement times, easier liquidity access, better trading environments and other improvements. 

They leverage tokenization to introduce novel yield-generating opportunities in traditionally illiquid markets like the private credit sector. As data from PricewaterhouseCoopers suggests, this could be a $1.5-trillion disruption. S&P Global also believes private credit tokenization is the “new digital frontier” that solves liquidity and transparency issues.

RWAs are thus emerging as a viable, more lucrative alternative for institutional investors, who control nearly one-fourth of the $450-trillion legacy financial market. That’s a strong enough waking sign — plus there’s increasing demand from “retail” users (i.e., the remaining three-fourths of the pie).

Retail is the end-game for RWAs

Institutional adoption is excellent for building initial awareness around RWAs. Like it or not, their actions move the needle. In the long run, however, individual retail users stand to benefit most from RWAs. 

RWAs make capital markets accessible to grassroots investors, including unbanked populations. Fractional ownership, for instance, lets those with smaller capital holdings get exposure to high-ticket assets otherwise reserved for wealthy family offices and institutions.

Because of these benefits, retail users will choose RWAs over traditional, exclusive financial assets and markets. And now it’s a no-brainer for them, thanks to solutions like social investing platforms, which give users intuitive, hassle-free access to novel financial opportunities. 

Multiple reports from Mastercard to Tren Finance and VanEck showcase RWAs’ massive growth potential. It could be anywhere between $50 billion and $30 trillion over the next four to five years. 

Widespread retail adoption will drive this growth, and unless traditional markets adapt or adopt RWAs, they will lose the vast majority of their users. With institutional and retail capital moving into this emerging sector, it’s genuinely do-or-die for legacy systems.

Robust tools and platforms that leverage RWAs to bridge the gap between traditional and emerging financial markets are available now. That makes it a question of intent and priority more than anything else. 

Catch up or become obsolete — that’s the message. It’s the wartime arc, as it has been long due. The best part is that legacy assets coming onchain and markets leveraging RWAs will be a win-win for issuers, institutions and retail users. That’s what the world needs from a financial standpoint. It’s worth all the effort.

Opinion by: Abdul Rafay Gadit, co-founder of ZIGChain.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Opinion by: Abdul Rafay Gadit, co-founder of ZIGChain

America’s tariff regime has apparently fueled a global trade war, forcing investors to explore stable, yield-generating alternatives. A closer look reveals that illiquidity, opacity and scalability challenges have plagued global financial markets for long. They weren’t in great shape anyway, trade war or no trade war.

Tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) have risen to this occasion — thankfully. For one, they ensure predictable yields, providing a haven for investors amid uncertain market conditions and unproductive volatility. 

Above all, though, RWAs are a lifeboat for legacy finance, as they enhance market liquidity, bring transparency to opaque markets, and make finance more democratic. Traditional financial markets need to integrate — not resist — RWAs to stay relevant in the coming decade. 

RWAs to the rescue

In legacy finance, capital’s “computability” occurs through slow, expensive and unreliable intermediaries like banks. For example, these entities are primarily unable to rebalance portfolios quickly. 

This limits market scope, and consumers bear significant losses. There are persistent trust issues across the board, while fund managers face immense administrative burdens in handling clients. The bottom line: Everyone suffers, except the value-sucking go-betweens. 

That’s a big reason fundraising in private equity, a key pillar of global financial markets, declined 24% in 2024, per McKinsey’s report. Likewise, as the SIFMA 2025 Capital Markets Outlook revealed, US equity issuance has decreased by 0.6% annually since 2020. Initial public offerings have been down 8.5% during this period. 

RWAs fix these. They make portfolio management more straightforward and seamless, with scalable capital deployment even in turbulent markets. 

Tokenization automates verifiable transactions, enabling precise, deterministic, trustless economies — turning the status quo on its head. It also provides investors with low-risk, low-cost and rapid access to existing and emerging global financial markets. 

Recent: 5 ways real-world asset tokenization is transforming TradFi

No wonder onchain RWAs increased 85% to over $15 billion in 2024. And this trend still has momentum. RWAs are poised to remain a top investment category in crypto.

RWAs reached a new all-time high recently, surpassing $17 billion, with over 82,000 asset holders. Notably, tokenized private credit is the largest asset in the RWA industry, with over $11 billion in valuation. 

It’s clear that investors chose RWAs in the face of a $10-billion liquidation and general, persistent market volatility. Moreover, this asset class is making private credit great again, laying the foundation for future financial markets.

“Smart money” bets on RWAs 

JPMorgan, BlackRock, UBS, Citi, Goldman Sachs — all the big names in legacy finance have moved into RWAs. Capital inflows from such “smart money” entities helped onchain private credit grow 40% last year, while tokenized treasuries surged 179% overall.

All this could very well be routine diversification and capital expansion. But funds like Franklin Templeton’s Franklin Onchain US Government Money Fund (FOBXX) and BlackRock’s US dollar Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) signal a more long-term motive. 

Initiatives like FOBXX and BUIDL are focused on transforming money markets through lower settlement times, easier liquidity access, better trading environments and other improvements. 

They leverage tokenization to introduce novel yield-generating opportunities in traditionally illiquid markets like the private credit sector. As data from PricewaterhouseCoopers suggests, this could be a $1.5-trillion disruption. S&P Global also believes private credit tokenization is the “new digital frontier” that solves liquidity and transparency issues.

RWAs are thus emerging as a viable, more lucrative alternative for institutional investors, who control nearly one-fourth of the $450-trillion legacy financial market. That’s a strong enough waking sign — plus there’s increasing demand from “retail” users (i.e., the remaining three-fourths of the pie).

Retail is the end-game for RWAs

Institutional adoption is excellent for building initial awareness around RWAs. Like it or not, their actions move the needle. In the long run, however, individual retail users stand to benefit most from RWAs. 

RWAs make capital markets accessible to grassroots investors, including unbanked populations. Fractional ownership, for instance, lets those with smaller capital holdings get exposure to high-ticket assets otherwise reserved for wealthy family offices and institutions.

Because of these benefits, retail users will choose RWAs over traditional, exclusive financial assets and markets. And now it’s a no-brainer for them, thanks to solutions like social investing platforms, which give users intuitive, hassle-free access to novel financial opportunities. 

Multiple reports from Mastercard to Tren Finance and VanEck showcase RWAs’ massive growth potential. It could be anywhere between $50 billion and $30 trillion over the next four to five years. 

Widespread retail adoption will drive this growth, and unless traditional markets adapt or adopt RWAs, they will lose the vast majority of their users. With institutional and retail capital moving into this emerging sector, it’s genuinely do-or-die for legacy systems.

Robust tools and platforms that leverage RWAs to bridge the gap between traditional and emerging financial markets are available now. That makes it a question of intent and priority more than anything else. 

Catch up or become obsolete — that’s the message. It’s the wartime arc, as it has been long due. The best part is that legacy assets coming onchain and markets leveraging RWAs will be a win-win for issuers, institutions and retail users. That’s what the world needs from a financial standpoint. It’s worth all the effort.

Opinion by: Abdul Rafay Gadit, co-founder of ZIGChain.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.