Ethereum News Today: Blockchain's RWA Tokenization Drives $1.4B Retail Investment Surge

Retail investors have poured over $1.4 billion into token sales this week, driven by a surge in demand for projects like Ethereum layer-2 network MegaETH, real estate platform DeProp, and privacy protocol zkPass. The frenzy highlights growing enthusiasm for blockchain-based assets, with some offerings oversubscribed by more than 27 times their target, according to a Cointelegraph report.

MegaETH, backed by Ethereum co-founders Vitalik Buterin and Joe Lubin via MegaLabs, raised $450 million in its initial coin offering (ICO), which was 8.9 times oversubscribed within hours of launching, Coindesk reported. The project, promising sub-millisecond transaction speeds and 100,000 transactions per second, attracted 14,491 participants, including 819 wallets committing the maximum $186,000 bid. However, concerns about fairness emerged as blockchain analytics firm Bubblemaps flagged potential Sybil activity in the sale, as BeInCrypto reported. Despite these red flags, analysts like Santiment's Brian Q noted that the demand reflects investor appetite for high-performance blockchain infrastructure, albeit with risks of volatility if hype outpaces fundamentals, a point highlighted by Cointelegraph.

Meanwhile, DeProp's $DXBRE token presale, which offers fractional ownership in Dubai real estate starting at $50, raised $1.4 million in its third stage toward a $3.25 million target, according to a Blockonomi report. The platform's tokenized model allows investors to earn 50% of rental income from properties as USDC while reinvesting the other half to expand its portfolio. With the token price set to rise from $0.023 to $0.064 at launch, DeProp's approach merges decentralized finance (DeFi) incentives with tangible asset appreciation, leveraging Dubai's favorable regulatory environment.

The market frenzy extends beyond these projects. zkPass's ZKP token sale surpassed its $2 million target within minutes, with over $67 million in allocation requests, as previously reported by Cointelegraph. Similarly, decentralized exchange Momentum's token offering also drew significant retail interest, underscoring a broader trend of accessibility in crypto investing.

Traditional financial institutions are also adapting to the tokenization wave. Visa's Q4 2025 earnings report highlighted a 27% year-over-year increase in stablecoin-linked card transactions, with monthly volume surpassing a $2.5 billion annualized run rate, according to a Motley Fool transcript. The payments giant's push to tokenize 100% of e-commerce transactions signals a growing integration of blockchain into mainstream finance.

Critics caution that the rapid adoption could lead to speculative bubbles. "Such aggressive, synchronized buying can amplify risks," warned Santiment's Brian Q, noting that MegaETH's success hinges on delivering on its technical promises. Nonetheless, the market's response suggests confidence in blockchain's potential to disrupt traditional asset classes and financial infrastructure.

As the tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs) gains traction, projects like DeProp and MegaETH are redefining investment paradigms. With Dubai's real estate and Ethereum's layer-2 networks at the forefront, the race to tokenize everything from property to payment systems is accelerating—driven by both innovation and the fear of missing out.