Why RWA tokenization hasn't scaled yet and what is unblocking it
Post309 words
RWAs are held back by missing high-performance DeFi infra, weak oracle infra and regulatory ambiguity. All three are improving through verifiable CLOBs, modular oracles like eOracle, the Genius Act and treasury adoption, with stablecoins already the largest onchain RWA class.
Key claims
Verifiable CLOBs make an onchain Nasdaq possible
Genius Act and BTC/ETH treasuries show improving regulation and adoption
Stablecoins are the largest RWA class onchain
Tokenizing RWAs is a trillion dollar opportunity, and what will turn DeFi into a truly mature, internet-native financial system.
Why hasn't it happened yet?
- DeFi infra needs to mature still, and has been missing the high performance capabilities needed to support Nasdaq-style exchanges.
- Data infra lacks performance, security and customizability to support complex financial instruments from TradFi or high frequency trading across a broad set of assets.
- Lack of regulatory clarity and barriers of entry for institutional capital/liquidity have been holding back adoption.
Luckily, most of the above is literally being resolved as we speak:
- DeFi core primitives are evolving, and especially highly performant CLOBs (fully onchain or verifiable offchain implementations) will be a game changer. Thanks to maturing base layer infrastructure, including realtime blockchains like @megaeth, Hyperliquid's HyperCore, @SeiNetwork or @fuel_network, scalable DA layers like @eigen_da or @celestia, ZK proving tech like @boundlesshq or @SuccinctLabs, and high-performance appchain stacks incl. @sovereign_labs, we see more and more verifiable CLOBs emerge, that are finally able to make an onchain (or verifiable) Nasdaq possible.
- We're also seeing major leaps in the oracle infra sector, where @eoracle_network for example pioneers modular, programmable, and fully customizable oracle implementations, addressing the need for specialized data feeds when dealing with complex financial products. Pyth or Lazer on the other hand provide high frequency data feeds, powering some of the before-mentioned onchain CLOBs.
- Regulatory environment for crypto in general as well as tokenized assets is improving, especially in the U.S. (e.g. introduction of Genius Act), and is also evidenced by increasing institutional + corporate adoption, (e.g. $BTC or $ETH treasury strategies), or the increasing traction of stablecoins (the most RWA class onchain).
Overall, I'm more optimistic than ever that we're heading into the right direction, and that bringing RWAs onchain will be a huge catalyst for our entire space.
Bullish.
What came next · since 11 Jul 2025
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