Real-World Assets (RWAs)

Real-world assets (RWAs) are now a $10 billion category, according to data curated by DeFiLlama. Notable participants such as Maker, BlackRock’s BUIDL, and Ethena’s USDtb each account for over $1 billion in total value locked (TVL).

Of these, USDtb — a stablecoin designed to contrast with Ethena’s USDe — has exhibited the fastest growth, with an increase of over 1,000% in TVL over the past month. USDtb is backed by tokenized BlackRock money-market fund shares, in contrast to USDe, which utilizes crypto-assets and perpetual futures strategies for yields.

A previous report from CoinDesk indicated that Treasury-backed tokens reached a record $4.2 billion market cap in the first quarter. This surge was fueled by the growth of Ondo Finance’s OUSG and USDY tokens, BlackRock and Securitize’s BUIDL, Franklin Templeton’s BENJI, and Superstate’s USTB.

According to data aggregator RWA.xyz, Treasury-backed tokens dominate the market, while the next highest category, tokenized commodities, stands at $1.26 billion, led by Paxos Gold, which has a TVL of just over $500 million.

Analysts suggest that this trend reflects investor preference for safer assets amid bearish crypto sentiment, especially as T-bills outperform yields offered by major DeFi protocols like Compound.

Read more: RWA Tokenization: What Does It Mean to Tokenize Real-World Assets?