SEC’s top crypto cop Tenreiro to now head agency’s litigation  

The market for tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) is growing by the day, but contrary to belief, the biggest hurdle to broader adoption isn’t regulation, but a lack of dedicated secondary markets for buying and selling tokenized securities, according to Prometheum founder and co-CEO Aaron Kaplan. In an interview with Cointelegraph, Kaplan drew attention to ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood’s recent appearance at the Digital Asset Summit in New York, where she said that a lack of regulatory clarity is preventing her company from tokenizing its funds.“Contrary to popular belief, however, the hurdle isn’t ambiguous regulation,” said Kaplan, who noted that the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) special purpose broker-dealer framework and Alternative Trading System (ATS) licensing “already provide a regulated pathway for issuing blockchain-native funds that offer efficiency advantages over traditional issuances.”“The real bottleneck lies in the limited market infrastructure for delivering tokenized securities trading to a broad investor base,” he said.Excluding stablecoins, the value of tokenized RWAs has increased by nearly 8% to $19.5 billion over the past 30 days, according to industry data. Private credit and US Treasury debt remain the two largest use cases. The value of tokenized RWAs has grown rapidly over the past year. Source: RWA.xyz“These assets currently sit on a handful of blockchains, but there is still no fully public secondary market where institutional and retail investors can buy, sell, and trade them, as they do with traditional securities on Nasdaq or through a brokerage account like Fidelity,” said Kaplan, who identified two general approaches for building out these platforms. The first is building tokenized securities markets using decentralized finance (DeFi) frameworks, much like what Ondo Finance, Ethena Labs and Securitize are doing.Related: Ethena Labs, Securitize launch blockchain for DeFi and tokenized assetsThe second approach involves integrating tokenization protocols into existing brokerage platforms that operate under SEC-registered entities and are subject to federal securities laws. “Legacy crypto and fintech platforms are already accustomed to facilitating cryptocurrency trading, so you would expect them to seek to broaden their offerings to include tokenized securities,” said Kaplan.While many in the latter camp do not operate digitally, they “won’t cede market share without a fight,” said Kaplan. “Many are already investing in their own tokenization initiatives, or partnering with fintech and crypto firms, to remain competitive.”“What’s at stake is the next wave of users onboarding into the digital asset space […] The question is then, will the brokerage industry enter the digital asset space, or will crypto platforms build the next gen markets for investors to buy and sell digital securities?” As a digital asset trading and custody firm, Prometheum is attempting to bridge the infrastructure gap by building a full-service digital asset securities marketplace. The company claims that securities traded on Prometheum have reduced fees, faster settlement times and increased efficiency.Related: CME Group taps Google Cloud for pilot asset tokenization programInvestors want ‘digital native’ versions of assets they’ve always knownPerhaps the biggest demand driver for tokenized assets among traditional investors is that they want to access “digital native versions of all assets, in addition to crypto tokens, through a single ecosystem they are comfortably using […] to meet a range of financial goals,” said Kaplan.One area where tokenization appears to be gaining traction is in real estate. As Cointelegraph recently reported, luxury and commercial properties are being tokenized all over North America and secondary markets are being established to enable the trading of tokenized shares. A 2024 report by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) called tokenization a “game-changing blockchain use case in financial services” due to its scalability and near-instant transactions. According to BCG managing director and senior partner Sean Park, tokenization could boost investors’ annual returns by roughly $100 billion while increasing the revenue streams of financial institutions. Tokenized RWAs as an investable asset class reached an “inflection point” in 2023. Source: Boston Consulting GroupThe potential of tokenization has even been flagged by the World Economic Forum in a recent article published by Digital Asset co-founder and CEO Yuvan Rooz. In the article, Rooz showed that roughly 10% of the $230 trillion global securities market is eligible for use as collateral. “Tokenization, which improves collateral mobility and capital efficiency, could unlock this untapped capital and optimize intraday liquidity so that funds can be accessed and moved within the same trading day to meet payment and settlement obligations,” said Rooz.Magazine: Block by block: Blockchain technology is transforming the real estate market

Cryptocurrency investors are increasingly moving capital into stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) in a bid to avoid volatility ahead of US President Donald Trump’s widely anticipated tariff announcement on April 2.Increasingly, more capital is flowing into stablecoins and the real-world asset (RWA) tokenization sector, which refers to financial products and tangible assets such as real estate and fine art minted on the blockchain.“Stablecoins and RWAs continue to see steady inflows of capital as safe havens in the current uncertain market,” crypto intelligence platform IntoTheBlock wrote in a March 31 X post.“However, because these assets reside on-chain, even slight shifts in sentiment can trigger significant price movements, driven by the lower barriers to reallocating capital in real time,” the firm noted.Stablecoins, total market cap. Source: IntoTheBlockThe flight to safety is mainly attributed to geopolitical tensions and global trade concerns, according to Juan Pellicer, senior research analyst at IntoTheBlock:“Many investors were expecting economic tailwinds following Trump’s inauguration as president, but increased geopolitical tensions, tariffs and general political uncertainty are making investors more cautious.”“This is not unreasonable, as even though global growth forecasts remain positive, growth expectations have decreased globally in recent months,” he added.Related: Bitcoin ‘more likely’ to hit $110K before $76.5K — Arthur HayesThe prospect of a global trade war has heightened inflation-related concerns, causing a significant decline in both cryptocurrency and traditional equity markets.S&P 500, BTC/USD, 1-day chart. Source: TradingView Bitcoin (BTC) has fallen 19% and the S&P 500 (SPX) index has fallen over 7% in the two months since Trump announced import tariffs on Chinese goods on Jan. 20, the day of his inauguration as president.The April 2 announcement is expected to detail reciprocal trade tariffs targeting top US trading partners. The measures aim to reduce the country’s estimated $1.2 trillion goods trade deficit and boost domestic manufacturing.Related: Stablecoin rules needed in US before crypto tax reform, experts sayInvestor sentiment pressured by April 2 Trump tariff announcementGlobal tariff fears and uncertainty around the upcoming announcement continue to pressure investor sentiment in global markets.“Risk appetite remains muted amid tariff threats from President Trump and ongoing macro uncertainty,” Iliya Kalchev, dispatch analyst at digital asset investment platform Nexo, told Cointelegraph.Meanwhile, RWAs reached a new cumulative all-time high of over $17 billion on Feb. 3, and are currently less than 0.5% away from surpassing the $20 billion milestone, according to data from RWA.xyz.RWA global market dashboard. Source: RWA.xyzSome industry watchers said that Bitcoin’s lack of upside momentum may drive RWAs to a $50 billion all-time high before the end of 2025, as their increased liquidity will help RWAs attract a significant share of the $450 trillion global asset market.Magazine: SCB tips $500K BTC, SEC delays Ether ETF options, and more: Hodler’s Digest, Feb. 23 – March 1

Michael Saylor’s Strategy bought nearly $2 billion of Bitcoin, taking advantage of a recent price dip despite growing market concerns tied to US President Donald Trump’s upcoming tariff announcement.Strategy, formerly MicroStrategy, has acquired 22,048 Bitcoin (BTC) for $1.92 billion at an average price of approximately $86,969 per Bitcoin.The company now holds over 528,000 Bitcoin acquired for $35.63 billion at an average price of $67,458 per BTC, announced Michael Saylor, the co-founder of Strategy, in a March 31 X post.Source: Michael SaylorStrategy is the world’s largest corporate Bitcoin holder and surpassed the 500,000 Bitcoin holdings milestone on March 24, days after Saylor hinted at an upcoming Bitcoin buy after the company announced the pricing of its latest tranche of preferred stock on March 21.The firm is currently up over 21% on its Bitcoin holdings with an unrealized profit of over $7.7 billion, according to Saylortracker data.Strategy total Bitcoin holdings, all-time chart. Source: SaylortrackerStrategy’s near $2 billion dip buy comes despite investor concerns related to Trump’s upcoming tariff announcement on April 2, which may set the tone for Bitcoin’s price trajectory throughout the month.The April 2 announcement is expected to detail reciprocal trade tariffs targeting top US trading partners, a development that may increase inflation-related concerns and limit demand for risk assets, such as BitcoinRelated: Bitcoin ‘more likely’ to hit $110K before $76.5K — Arthur HayesThis is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.