Key Takeaways
- Retail investment platforms are needed to realize the potential of tokenized real-world assets.
- Efforts to build multi-asset RWA marketplaces are underway.
- Animoca Brands is launching NUVA, a vault marketplace that connects tokenized RWA issuers with investors.
Since the beginning of 2024, the number of tokenized real-world asset (RWA) products available to investors has exploded.
But tokenization alone isn’t enough. For investors to truly realize the benefits of the technology, they need platforms and interfaces that support a diverse range of asset classes.
Tokenization Challenges
From around $8.5 billion at the start of 2024, the value of all tokenized RWAs excluding stablecoins has ballooned to nearly $25 billion today.
Private credit is the single largest asset class in the space, with platforms like Figure and Maple each tokenizing billions of dollars worth of loans.
Despite recent growth, access to these assets remains both limited and siloed. For example, there is no unified platform where investors can access yields from Maple and Figure.
The two platforms don’t even accept the same digital currency, with Maple mostly running on USDC and Figure deploying its own YLDS stablecoin.
Meanwhile, although advocates of tokenization like to talk about democratizing access to finance, flagship products like BlackRock’s BUIDL, which has a $5 million minimum buy-in, are hardly retail-friendly.
Against this backdrop, efforts are underway to build more accessible investment platforms that offer different asset classes under a single umbrella. In the ideal world, these platforms will eventually function as seamlessly as crypto exchanges.
Animoca Brands Developing RWA Marketplace
On Aug. 7, Animoca Brands announced plans to launch NUVA, a vault marketplace that connects tokenized RWA issuers with investors.
Developed in collaboration with Provenance Blockchain Labs (ProvLabs), NUVA will initially offer vaults backed by Figure’s YLDS and home equity line of credit (HELOC) tokens.
But the platform isn’t limited to tokenized assets from Figure. Animoca expects to onboard more issuers going forward.
The use of DeFi-style vaults helps overcome one of the limitations of direct-from-issuer RWA tokens, which can generally only be exchanged between a select few accredited investors.
While still complying with KYC (Know Your Customer) and AML (Anti-Money Laundering) requirements, “once an RWA is put into its vault, the receipt tokens will be completely permissionless and available on multiple platforms, just like crypto,” ProvLabs CEO Anthony Moro explained to CCN.
Beyond Figure’s private credit products, Animoca and Provlabs are looking to incorporate insurance, commodities, real estate and more, he added
Broadening Access to Securities
Tokenization also has huge potential in asset classes that have traditionally been difficult for retail investors to access.
This includes private credit and the multi-trillion dollar private equity market.
In the EU, the first fully on-chain small company stock exchanges are already being built.
Meanwhile, for international investors, one of the biggest appeals of tokenization is the ability to access U.S. stocks and other securities.
Alongside Securitize, Ondo Finance is one of key players tokenizing U.S. securities.
In early 2025, the company launched Ondo Global Markets. The platform lists over 1,000 U.S. stocks, ETFs, and fixed-income instruments, with tokens backed one-for-one by real assets held in custody.
While Ondo was among the first to realize this model, a growing number of platforms offer a similar service.
In recent months, crypto exchanges have led a wave of interest in so-called “stock tokens.”
Backed by real equity, these tokens offer 24/7 trading in the familiar interface of a retail investment platform.
With the concept still in its early days, stock token pioneers have faced liquidity challenges. But as adoption rises, there is no reason why those same platforms can’t expand into other RWAs.
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James Morales is CCN’s blockchain and crypto policy reporter. He has been working in the news media since 2020, writing about topics such as payments, banking and financial technology. These days, he likes to explore the latest blockchain innovations and the evolving landscape of global crypto regulation.
With an educational background in social anthropology and media studies, James uses his platform as a journalist to explore how new technologies work, why they matter and how they might shape our future.
