Gold, Precious Metals Dominate Real-World Assets On Blockchain: Is This A Sign Of Things To Come?

In a significant development for the digital assets space, the value of real-world assets (RWAs) on-chain achieved a new milestone, reaching an all-time high of $3.1 billion as of Sept. 1, according to research.

This surge in value surpasses the previous record of $2.75 billion set in April 2022 by a notable 13%.

The composition of this value is intriguing, with gold and precious metals leading the pack, accounting for 37.3%.

This is followed by money markets at 22.98%, treasuries at 20.04% and private credit at 13.27%, according to research by digital assets firm Galaxy.

Equities, carbon offsets and real estate also contribute, albeit in smaller proportions.

Notably, yield-bearing RWAs, which include assets such as treasuries, money markets, real estate and private credit currently represent 61% of the total RWA market cap.

The report further highlighted that the recent growth in RWAs was primarily driven by on-chain demand for off-chain sources of yield.

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Following aggressive rate hikes, yield-bearing RWAs have seen an increase of $1.44 billion, which constituted 87% of the $1.66 billion added to RWAs this year.

On a related note, the report also touched upon the rewards earned by validators in MEV.

Validators have amassed a cumulative 187k Ethereum ETH/USD in MEV rewards in 2023, averaging 776 Ethereum daily.

However, post the Merge, there has been a noticeable decline in these rewards, attributed to a lag in adopting MEV boost software.

With RWAs gaining traction and the digital assets ecosystem evolving rapidly, the industry awaits further innovations and integrations that bridge the gap between traditional and digital assets.

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