Pax Gold (PAXG): This tokenized form of gold was created by the Paxos Trust company in 2019 and has a $2.3 billion market cap. It operates on the Ethereum blockchain and creates a much more democratized way for people to buy exposure to an asset that has been very popular recently. PAXG has instant settlement, no storage fees, and little transaction fees, which means gold can be widely distributed and traded. I think this takes away slightly from gold’s value proposition of a long-term, real asset hedge because it becomes a highly traded commodity, but with 24-hour volumes reaching over $800,000,000, it can’t be understated how efficient and important the asset is.
Tether Gold (XAUt): While Tether is typically only thought of as a stable-coin company, its affiliate TG Commodities issues tokenized versions of gold that command about a 60% market share and operates on Ethereum and Layer 2s. This version of the tokenized commodity is backed by gold held in Swiss vaults. This asset is massively tradeable as well, and I think the fact that it is directly backed by physical gold in Switzerland is the main driver of its popularity. Instead of some insane synthetic structure that allows investors to get exposure, this is a true tokenized version of a real-world asset, which shows that, when legit, RWAs are trustworthy investments, which I think many investors worry about.
BlackRock BUIDL: Possibly the most popular RWA, the BlackRock USD Institutional Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) has reached a market cap of around $2.4 billion. BUIDL tokens are an on-chain version of U.S. treasuries. The tokens hold a value of $1, and the yield from the underlying assets is distributed directly into the token holder’s wallet as a new token. They are also integrated with Circle so that BUIDL tokens can be swapped directly into dollars in the form of USDC. I think the most important aspect of BUIDL, though, is how massive a traditional finance project it is. BlackRock and BNY Mellon work together to distribute it, supported by Securitize, and many institutions on-chain hold and use it. This is massive for crypto because, as the trust and use cases for large financial institutions grow, so will the crypto space as a whole.
Ondo Finance (USDY/OUSG): Another version of tokenized treasuries is those securities issued by Ondo Finance. This comes from another angle because Ondo is a crypto-first company, so the around $1.3 billion of market cap that Ondo tokens have amassed is huge support for the new crypto companies. The OUSG coin is supported by short-term treasury ETFs and institutional money market funds (like BUIDL), and the USDY coin is backed by short-term and bank deposits. Both of these coins can distribute yield by either appreciating in redemption value, so staying at 100 tokens, but the value of redeeming each of those tokens goes up from $1.00 to $1.25, or by rebasing, which is distributing more tokens that stay at the same value forever to someone that hold USDY or OUSG in a wallet.
Circle US Yield Coin (USYC): This is Circle's version of a tokenized treasury, which is backed by short-term treasuries and reverse repurchase agreements and has a market cap of $2.9 billion. USDY can be immediately swapped back and forth with USDC, making it extremely liquid. USYC is different from USDC because the token appreciates directly with its yield, so it is not like the stablecoins that USDC typically custodies, which stay pegged at $1. However, U.S. investors, like many RWA assets, do not have access to it because GENIUS prohibited yield bearing stablecoins. The hope is that the pending CLARITY Act will give more security-like products a path to being regulated and tradeable in the U.S. and that USYC can become available to U.S. trades, especially institutional traders.
Syrup USDC (syrupUSDC): Lastly, but not least, syrupUSDC and its equivalent syrupUSDT are tokenized versions of private credit that have $1.25 billion and $658.25 million market caps. It is created by Maple Finance and bridges the gap between institutional-grade lending and retail or other institutional investors on DeFi. Maple Finance lends to vetted institutional customers and then returns that yield to the token holders of syrupUSDC/T. A retail investor can simply deposit USDC into the Syrup protocol and receive syrupUSDC in return wich will then appreciate instead of rebase, so 1 coin will be worth more when exchanging back to the protocol tomorrow rather than a holder receiving more coins. Maple Finance uses all of the funds from the USDC deposits to give out over-collateralized loans to trusted, verified companies. Syrup can offer liquidity on these loans all the time because they keep a USDC buffer in the vault, and external DEXs like Uniswap have deep liquidity in trading pools for the token, so a user can swap in one of those protocols. This makes syrupUSDC a go-to coin for people to use as on-chain loan collateral because it is yield-bearing and also stays at a stable price. Depositing into a DEX liquidity pool is also attractive because it allows holders to earn double yield. I think the most special thing about this token is that it takes an infamously illiquid and inaccessible market and makes it extremely liquid and easy to enter and exit. As of 4/26/2026, Syrup is advertising a 5.1% APY on USDC/T and that attractive of a yield, coupled with diversification of private credit that has liquidity, makes its risk/return profile very attractive. I also think it shows a great way for lending companies to tap into more capital and more efficiently distribute the yield on that capital to investors.
Overall, RWAs are extremely exciting and something to keep youreye one as the products and ideas become more developed and more creative.
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