Canton's $6T RWA Rails and Lighter's Hyperliquid Multiple

Canton Coin Surge and Institutional Adoption

Canton Coin surged nearly 27% over the past week, outpacing the broader cryptocurrency market as institutional adoption of tokenized real-world assets gains momentum.

The move followed a Dec. 17 announcement from the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) outlining plans to tokenize a portion of U.S. Treasury securities on the Canton Network.

This collaboration signals a broader shift toward blockchain-based financial infrastructure, with DTCC processing about $3.7 quadrillion in securities transactions annually.

Why the Move Happened

a blockchain-based financial network with interconnected nodes representing U.S. Treasury securities being tokenized on the Canton Network

Tokenized U.S. Treasurys have become a key use case for RWA, with total distributed value in this category rising from $3.9 billion to $9 billion in 2025.

BlackRock's USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) is the largest product in the space, offering onchain exposure to short-term U.S. Treasurys with daily yield accrual.

The DTCC's move aims to expand beyond Treasurys to a wide range of DTC-eligible assets, creating a scalable onchain infrastructure for institutional-grade financial instruments.

How Markets Responded

Canton Coin's performance contrasted with a flat or declining broader market. Bitcoin and Ether were down around 0.5%, while Solana fell 3.3% during the same period according to market data.

Lighter, a decentralized perpetual futures exchange, also drew attention after its token airdrop. The LIT token opened above $3.30 but fell to around $2.50 within a day according to Coindesk reporting.

The platform's fully diluted valuation (FDV) now exceeds $2.5 billion, compared to a $1.5 billion valuation in its November 2025 funding round.

Despite the airdrop-driven activity, Lighter's 30-day trading volume reached $201 billion, placing it among the top perpetuals platforms.

What Analysts Are Watching

Investors are closely monitoring whether Lighter can sustain its performance without relying on short-term incentives. Its current valuation appears inflated compared to Hyperliquid, which has a stronger revenue model and buyback strategy.

Lighter's revenue has also seen a sharp decline, from $1.5 million per day in November to $150,000 per day in December according to crypto market analysis.

Hyperliquid, by contrast, has generated consistent revenue and allocated nearly all of it to token buybacks, supporting its $HYPE token's value.

The broader RWA market continues to grow, with tokenized assets exceeding $19 billion in total value. This trend is supported by institutional players like DTCC and financial innovators seeking to digitize traditional markets.

Investors are also watching whether the tokenization of U.S. Treasurys can scale beyond the current use cases and expand into new asset classes such as corporate bonds or real estate according to industry analysis.