👀 Bitwise's RWA ETF, BlackRock and Marvel Partner Up, Stellar Growth and More RWA News

Summary and Key Takeaways

1. ETFs Just Got a Whole Lot More Interesting: Bitwise and Grayscale

What we’ve been saying for years is starting to come true and that’s investment products evolving to account for new assets. In this case we’re talking about Bitwise coming out with their new ETF filing with a focus on stablecoin and tokenization infrastructure. This comes at a great time considering the increased number of crypto-company IPOs and crypto companies changing focus to RWAs but here’s the more fun part: utility tokens. There’s an equity sleeve and there’s a crypto asset sleeve meant to invest in the tokens powering RWA infrastructure. It’s genius, I wonder who’s idea it was and pushed for this product! Combining equities with multiple cryptos? That’s going to be interesting to follow from both a returns and demand perspective.

It’s not like they’re just going to hold XRP, SYRUP, LINK, and ONDO (just examples) in a wallet however, they need these to be accessible in an ETP and what great coincidence that shortly after the SEC announces they’ll be making spot crypto ETF listing processes more streamlined. In light of this, they also approved Grayscale’s Digital Large Cap Fund which holds the 5 cryptos in the CoinDesk 5 Index. According to the article, “The decision will enable exchanges to proceed with the listing of proposed ETFs by sidestepping the often-lengthy 19(b) rule filing process that can take up to 240 days and requires the SEC to actively approve or disapprove an ETF.” With that in mind, expect a bunch of new ETPs for the remainder of the year, especially those around tokenization infrastructure, and Bitwise’s ETF to be live around Thanksgiving. How can this evolve further? Imagine both equity and crypto sleeves available onchain, whether through a fintech’s tokenized stocks or directly with Nasdaq/DTCC next year. The future of onchain asset management is upon us.

2. BlackRock and Marvel Partner on IP Tokenization JV: Mutual Capital

If that wasn’t already exciting, here’s another big one! Intellectual property (IP) is a great candidate for tokenization given it aligns with fans/ supporters of the projects very well. We’ve seen projects like Story IP, crowdfunds like Pressman Films’ on Republic, and Sony’s Soneium blockchain. Now we have Mutual Capital entering a new growth era as both BlackRock and Marvel invest in them. After scoping out the deal, BlackRock looped in Marvel to take 23% in addition to BlackRock’s 35%, strongly aligning the two to help Mutual Capital grow their IP tokenization infrastructure. Which movies, shows, or other IP assets do you think we’ll see them bring onchain first? Looking at their website, it seems they’ll have their own Mutual Entertainment Chain in the future. The utility token powering MEC is another example of a potential future constituent in Bitwise’s stablecoin and tokenization infrastructure ETF.

3. Centrifuge, Anemoy, and Plume to Tokenize Apollo’s Credit Strategy with $50M Grove Investment

The $600B+ asset manager is expanding its exposure to DeFi ecosystems and that includes going beyond Securitize’s infrastructure. Last week we saw Anemoy and Centrifuge announce they’ll be tokenizing access to that credit strategy as ACREDX and making it available through Plume’s Nest Credit vaults (nACREDX). This makes sense as different ecosystems brings different types of investors AKA inflows from the feeder funds. They’re already demonstrating that with Sky’s Grove credit infrastructure protocol allocating $50M into it. It likely won’t stop there, with this ecosystem also building out DeFi functionality and partnering up with the likes of S&P for onchain indices. Is Apollo exploring who to natively tokenize a full fund with? Who will give those LP units the most utility? Working with different ecosystems using feeder funds will give Christine Moy and team further insight on future, even larger initiatives.

4. Stellar Announces Partnerships with RedSwan, Mercado Bitcoin, Centrifuge, and More

Stellar blockchain is on a roll partnering up with more RWA companies which was especially emphasized at their Meridian Conference last week in Brazil. RedSwan’s bringing $100M in real estate to Stellar by the end of the year, starting with 2 live properties. For others to tokenize their properties on Stellar, the RedSwan Token Studio will also be expanding to support it. Meanwhile Mercado Bitcoin is doubling that in bringing $200M worth of LATAM fixed income and equities although it remains unclear if this is an additional $200M to that they announced for XRP Ledger or if they’re expanding those assets to Stellar. Shifting focus to the funds space, Centrifuge is bringing JAAA and JTRSY to Stellar via their deRWA infrastructure. This is in an effort to tap into emerging markets and additional liquidity afforded by other infrastructure running on Stellar, borrowing/lending, and of course any new structured products to be built on this foundation. Clearly Stellar is looking to expand into RWAs further and partnering with asset issuers and infrastructure providers will help drive more assets to their chain.

5. Inveniam and Rialto Markets Partner for Onchain Private Market Assets, Futures, Swaps and More

Private market assets suffer from lack of quality information, be it access to it or trust in it. Unlike public companies, private ones don’t have to disclose as much, meaning it’s harder to price. This results in less liquidity, slower transactions, and the inability to build sophisticated products around them. This is something Inveniam has been tackling as an OG in the tokenization space, bringing data rooms onchain to ensure trust and efficiency in, for example, NAVs, waterfall calculations, etc. What about the capital markets part? This is why they’re investing in Rialto Markets, also a tokenization OG and an operational ATS where these assets could trade onchain. The duo will be focusing on futures, swaps, and other derivatives backed by these private market assets, going after the $100T opportunity. Congratulations to Pat O’Meara, Peter Gaffney, Shari Noonan, Joel Steinmetz, and teams - we’re excited to see where this partnership goes!

This is not financial advice.

RWA Foundation & WALLY DAO Updates

The RWA Foundation introduced the RWA Pod as “A permissionless way for anyone to support RWAs using crypto with multiple RWA project tokens as yield.”

In partnership with PERQ, the RWA Pod allows you to deposit ETH, USDC, ARB, and S/ Sonic. Participants will receive tokens on multiple blockchain protocols related to RWA projects that the RWA Foundation has qualified and selected as Founding Members.

What’s the Update? Hear directly from your RWA Pod Host Ray Buckton and Founder Herwig “Happy” Konings! 👇

STM.co Data

This is not financial advice.

Think Like Herwig

Hello readers,

Last week I attended RWA Summit which stepped up its game from basketball tokens to crypto IPOs featuring a panel with the Winklevoss Twins (who opted to be in one photo for the speaker pictures.. lol) and saw the rising tide of TradFi adoption. Everything from large insurance companies to the usual banks and asset managers but fresh faces too, including from DeFi. Everyone is giddy with excitement thanks to the green light from Trump and the SEC. Still, the RWA market squabbles about the definition of tokenized asset data metrics instead of generating activity and proves that education is still a main hurdle to adoption.

More importantly we saw the RWA Pod staking opportunity go live on Perq.Finance, marking the first volley of onboarding DeFi and crypto natives into RWAs. To see hundreds of thousands of deposits come in the first few days was remarkable. We’re approaching $1M in deposits and need your help to get over the edge. Help us mobilize and grow the RWA industry simply with your USDC or crypto that’s lying around and take it back when you want to use it or swap. 

If 1 of these 9 projects (not including WALLY) can see significant traction and attention through the remaining ~80 days that the RWA Pod is open, it could help put all the other partners on the map too. Wouldn’t that be something! Get the latest exclusively on X.

Happy tokenizing, 
Herwig “Happy” Konings
CEO, Security Token Group 

Follow me on X / LinkedIn

Security Token Show Ends with 300 Episodes!

Check out the latest and final episode of the Security Token Show as well as the full catalog on Youtube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts & Google Podcasts.

Reports

RWA Tokenization: Key Trends and 2025 Market Outlook

Check out a report we contributed to: RWA Tokenization: Key Trends and 2025 Market Outlook. Led by Brickken, this report brings multiple parties together in diving into tokenization, with STM.co supporting with both data and some of the written sections.

What’s Inside?

✅ A Breakdown of Tokenization and Related Benefits
✅ Key advantages for issuers, investors, and institutions
✅ How the market is evolving and trends shaping adoption in 2025
✅ What’s next? Expert insights on regulation, DeFi integration, institutional involvement, and market growth

STM’s RWA Market Prediction for 2030

STM.co is proud to release a thorough report on our prediction on the tokenized real world asset market growth. This report explores the variety of opportunities within each asset class to capture value on-chain.

Tokenization can be applied to just about any object and asset type. Art, carbon credits, life insurance, and other sub $5 trillion asset classes weren’t even considered in estimates.

In order for STM to derive its 2030 market predictions, the following asset classes were evaluated: currency, M2/M3, real estate, commodities, public equities, private companies and funds, bonds, credit and lending markets.

This is not financial or investment advice.

Helpful Resources

• $30 Trillion by 2030 - STM

• Global Tokenized Real Estate Market Guide 2024 - STM

• TokenizeThis 2024: Highlights and Key Takeaways - STM

• TokenizeThis 2023: Highlights and Key Takeaways - STM

• State of Security Tokens 2023 - Q4 - STA

• State of Security Tokens 2023 - Q3 - STA

• State of Security Tokens 2023 - Q2 - STA

• State of Security Tokens 2023 - Q1 Extended - STA

• Real-World Asset Tokenization 2023 According to STM - STM

• Tokenizing an Asset in 3 Easy Steps - Security Token Show

• Rich Data in Private Assets - STM

• State of Security Tokens 2022 - STA

• State of Security Tokens 2023 - Institutional Edition - STA

• Tokenization for Institutions - What You Need to Know - STM, Arca (YouTube)