Kadena Report Highlights ERC-3643 as Key to $25 Billion RWA Tokenization by 2025

Kadena, a high-performance blockchain platform, has released a report highlighting the growing significance of ERC-3643 as the de facto standard for compliant real-world asset (RWA) tokenization. The report underscores the increasing institutional interest in purpose-built tokens that meet regulatory requirements, marking a shift away from legacy standards like ERC-20 and ERC-721. These traditional tokens, while foundational for digital assets, do not adequately address the security and compliance needs of institutional investors seeking regulated exposure to tokenized assets.

The report estimates that the total value locked (TVL) in RWA tokenization projects could range from $12.4 billion to $25 billion by July 2025. ERC-3643 is emerging as the default regulated token standard, supported by over $32 billion in tokenized value. Its capabilities, including identity-aware issuance, transfer restrictions, and programmable compliance layers, facilitate the integration of regulatory requirements at the smart contract level. This makes ERC-3643 a preferred choice for institutional adoption, as it solves compliance issues at the protocol level rather than attempting to add them later.

Kadena founder Stuart Popejoy emphasized the real institutional adoption in the RWA space, with over $32 billion in tokenized assets already using ERC-3643. He noted that the infrastructure bottleneck is not institutional interest but compliance, which requires KYC/AML verification, investor accreditation, and jurisdiction restrictions built directly into the token contracts. Standards like ERC-3643 are gaining traction because they address these compliance issues at the protocol level, thereby upgrading capital markets instead of creating another speculative market.

Kadena has also developed its own RWA-specific standard based on its Pact smart contract language. This standard mimics the compliance-centric functionality of ERC-3643 but is optimized for performance and security through Kadena's scalable, parallel-chain design. The company is actively facilitating the growth of RWA infrastructure through a $25 million grant-based program. One of its first investors, CurveBlock, a UK-based investment fund focusing on zero-carbon developments in real estate, will use the traditional Kadena token standard to automate investor onboarding, compliance-based controls, and enhance access to sustainable real estate investment opportunities.

The report also examines RWA tokenization efforts on other blockchains, including Stellar and Algorand. Stellar offers fast and low-cost settlement with customizable asset settings, while Algorand provides institutional-grade permission controls and automated smart contracts. These platforms demonstrate the diverse technical frameworks emerging to support compliant tokenization. However, the report highlights the need to address challenges such as interoperability between different chains, the dynamically changing regulatory environment, and the legal enforcement of tokenized securities. Jurisdictional compatibility and smooth legal treatment of on-chain representations are crucial for the global scale-up of RWAs.

Kadena envisions a bullish future for the tokenized asset market, predicting its size to be between $2 trillion and $11 trillion by 2030. This growth is expected to be driven by strong standards like ERC-3643, which can solve compliance issues at scale and win the trust of institutions. The extended version of the research, titled "Compliant Tokenization of Real-World Assets: Mapping the RWA Token Standard Landscape," is available on Kadena's website.

Kadena, developed by blockchain veterans Stuart Popejoy and Will Martino in 2016, is a high-performance Layer1 blockchain that supports Solidity and Pact smart contracts. Its chain-web parallel-chain system, low-cost network, innate security, and cross-chain capabilities make it suitable for introducing DeFi protocols, tokenization projects, and AI-based solutions on a decentralized, scalable platform. Kadena nurtures an ecosystem of grant-backed builders and developer tools, positioning itself as a major force in high-throughput compliant blockchain use cases.