What are Real World Assets (RWA)?
Bringing physical and traditional financial assets on-chain
Real World Assets (RWAs) are physical or traditional financial assets tokenized on a blockchain. Stocks, bonds, real estate, gold, invoices — any asset with real-world value can be represented as a digital token and traded 24/7 on-chain.
The problem with traditional assets
Most of the world's wealth — estimated at over $600 trillion — sits in traditional assets: real estate, bonds, private equity, commodities. These markets are slow (days to settle), expensive (brokers, banks, lawyers), geographically restricted, and inaccessible to most of the world.
A retail investor in Asia cannot easily access US Treasury bonds. A small business owner in Europe cannot buy a fraction of a commercial building in New York. Settlement of stock trades takes two business days (T+2). Interest from bonds is paid monthly, not instantly.
RWA tokenization changes all of this.
Real World Asset. A physical or traditional financial asset represented as a blockchain token.
Special Purpose Vehicle. A legal entity used to hold real-world assets backing blockchain tokens.
The process of creating a digital token on a blockchain that represents ownership of a real-world asset.
Dividing ownership of an asset into many smaller pieces, enabling broader participation.
Returns generated by an asset — rent from property, interest from bonds, dividends from stocks.