Traditional and Digital Finance Collide: Tokenized Assets to Redefine Trillion-Dollar Markets

Animoca Brands, a leading Web3 and blockchain gaming company, is expanding its focus on tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) as part of a broader strategy to capitalize on the growing convergence of traditional finance and decentralized technologies. The firm's founder, Yat Siu, emphasized during a recent interview that altcoins and utility-driven crypto projects will play a pivotal role in this evolution, positioning Animoca as a vehicle for investors to access a diversified portfolio of digital assets beyond Bitcoin. This approach aligns with the company's planned reverse merger IPO in 2026, which aims to provide institutional and retail investors with exposure to a range of blockchain innovations, from decentralized finance (DeFi) to Web3 gaming ecosystems.

The rise of RWAs is being supported by infrastructure developments across the crypto sector. 1inch launched Aqua, a liquidity protocol enabling shared capital across multiple DeFi strategies without compromising user custody. By allowing liquidity providers to deploy assets across automated market makers (AMMs), stable swap pools, and custom strategies simultaneously, Aqua addresses fragmentation in DeFi capital efficiency-a critical enabler for RWA adoption. Meanwhile, Securitize, backed by BlackRock and Ark Invest, has secured EU regulatory approval to operate a tokenized securities platform on the Avalanche blockchain, with its first EU-based issuance expected in early 2026. This marks a significant step toward institutional-grade tokenization, as the firm becomes the only entity authorized to run compliant RWA infrastructure in both the U.S. and EU.

Ripple's recent regulatory win in Abu Dhabi further underscores the momentum behind tokenized assets. The company's dollar-pegged stablecoin, RLUSD, was approved for institutional use in the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), expanding its utility in collateral and cross-border payments. This follows similar approvals in Dubai, where RLUSD is already integrated into the payment systems of Zand Bank and Mamo. Such developments highlight the growing acceptance of stablecoins as foundational components of RWA ecosystems, bridging traditional and digital finance.

Mutuum Finance, a DeFi lending protocol, is also advancing RWA infrastructure through its dual-lending model and mtToken yield mechanisms, with a major Halborn security audit nearing completion ahead of its Q4 2025 V1 launch. The project's focus on structured lending tools and multi-layer security aligns with the industry's push for robust, institutional-grade RWA platforms.

While Animoca's RWA strategy remains centered on altcoins and Web3 utility, the broader market is being shaped by cross-sector innovations. Yat Siu's analogy of altcoins to early internet giants like Amazon and Google underscores the long-term vision for crypto's role in democratizing access to real-world assets. As regulatory frameworks evolve and infrastructure matures, the RWA market-projected to reach trillions in value-stands to redefine how assets are issued, traded, and managed globally.