L1 battle is underway, and the new public chain Sui leads the "RWA Spring"

Author: Wenser, Odaily Planet Daily

Due to the impending inauguration of Trump and a series of potential favorable policies in the U.S., the cryptocurrency market has once again experienced a trading peak, with BTC prices briefly surpassing $107,000. Numerous investment institutions are not only pouring substantial funds into BTC ETFs, ETH ETFs, and other funds but are also seeking new value growth points.

At the same time, as predicted by Binance founder CZ, the altcoin season has arrived. In addition to established tokens and meme coins, L1 public chain tokens are also experiencing strong upward momentum, particularly the SUI token, which has continuously broken new highs. The Sui ecosystem not only has a solid foundation in the DeFi sector but also shows significant development in the meme coin sector. Furthermore, unlike other L1 public chains limited to the crypto market, recent major moves in the RWA sector have opened up new possibilities for attracting liquidity and attention from outside the crypto space.

On December 13, Sui officially announced a partnership with Ant Group and its Web3 technology brand ZAN, aiming to bring RWA (Real World Assets) in the ESG field into the Sui ecosystem. One party is a rising star in public chains, while the other is a pioneer in digital assets. It seems that both sides will embark on an "RWA Spring" for physical assets, bringing more possibilities to the crypto market. Odaily Planet Daily will analyze this in the following article.

The Best Reason to Choose RWA: An Emerging Market with a Future Scale of Up to $30 Trillion

The primary reason Sui and Ant Group chose the RWA sector as their collaboration ground is its position at the intersection of TradFi and DeFi, with a potentially massive market scale. According to information from RWA.xyz, the current on-chain RWA asset scale exceeds $14 billion, stablecoin assets reach $201.77 billion, and there are as many as 116 asset issuers. However, compared to future prospects, there remains over 100 times the market space.

Global consulting firm McKinsey & Company stated that by 2030, the market for tokenized assets (RWA) could reach $4 trillion, with many projects transitioning from pilot phases to large-scale deployment. Colin Butler, head of global institutional capital at Polygon, previously mentioned that RWA represents a $30 trillion market opportunity globally. High-net-worth individuals and private equity funds will drive adoption in this field, as tokenization brings liquidity and accessibility to historically illiquid asset classes. A previous research report by Tren Finance pointed out that if the RWA industry can reach an expected median of about $10 trillion, its value would increase by more than 54 times compared to the present.

Information from RWA.xyz

According to a report released by asset management giant Bitwise titled "Top 10 Predictions for the Crypto Market in 2025," the RWA market is expected to reach $50 billion by 2025 as Wall Street institutions accelerate their entry, with the potential for exponential growth thereafter. Venture capital firm ParaFi predicts that by 2030, the market for tokenized RWA could grow to $2 trillion, while the Global Financial Markets Association forecasts it could reach $16 trillion. Such a hot market expectation naturally attracts a host of world-class institutions:

• Goldman Sachs' digital asset platform has officially launched and helped the European Investment Bank issue €100 million in two-year digital bonds. Additionally, Goldman Sachs has partnered with traditional financial institutions to launch related services and plans to build its own private chain for asset tokenization.
• Siemens Group previously issued €60 million in on-chain digital bonds, marking the "first attempt in the RWA field."
• Financial giants like HSBC, JPMorgan, and Citigroup are also exploring the tokenization of government bonds to improve financial efficiency and settlement speed.
• The U.S. Treasury RWA market currently stands at nearly $3 billion, having grown nearly 30 times from $100 million at the beginning of 2023, with USYC, launched in collaboration with Hashnote and cryptocurrency custodian Copper, reaching $880 million; BlackRock's BUIDL has reached $560 million.

Information on the U.S. Treasury RWA market

It is understood that the collaboration between Ant Group and Sui primarily aims to promote the tokenization of ESG-related RWA, expanding its reach to global investors, with the underlying assets being renewable energy assets from a Chinese solar materials manufacturer.

As a blockchain ecosystem that has seen its TVL grow over 14 times to $14 billion this year and has gained support from U.S. asset management giants like Grayscale and VanEck, Sui views the RWA market as "the next growth point." Jameel Khalfan, head of ecosystem development at Sui Foundation, stated, "Tokenization of the ESG market is a significant step forward for real-world assets. Through this collaboration, investors will be able to enter a whole new market, all happening on the platform best suited for it, namely Sui."

It is clear that RWA has become a strategically important sector valued by both blockchain networks and digital asset institutions, with high industry value.

Dual Support for RWA Development: Internal Advantages and Market Demand

Specifically, the strategic significance of the RWA sector is reflected in the following three aspects:

• Asset transparency and trading efficiency: By tokenizing physical assets and bringing them onto the blockchain, investors can deeply participate in market transactions through the transparency of on-chain data and the high efficiency of on-chain operations.
• Enhanced liquidity of physical assets: Based on improved transparency and enhanced security, RWA assets can achieve partial ownership splitting, significantly increasing the digital liquidity of physical assets.
• Acting as a bridge between traditional markets and crypto markets: By introducing low-risk, high-return tokenized products, more physical assets and investors will inject a new wave of liquidity into both traditional and crypto markets, revitalizing real-world physical assets while bringing more quality targets and liquidity to the crypto market.

RWA can represent many different types of traditional assets, including tangible and intangible assets. In overseas markets, RWA primarily consists of bonds and gold.

Why did Sui, as a leading blockchain network in the crypto market, choose Chinese renewable energy assets?

Industry experts point out that "this reflects, to some extent, the 'industrial characteristics of China'." According to data from the Forward Industry Research Institute, in 2023, China's renewable energy industry accumulated installed capacity reached 1.57 billion kilowatts, with a five-year compound growth rate of 15.31%. From solar power generation to charging piles and new energy vehicle products, renewable energy has become China's "new label." "These renewable energy assets, once converted to RWA, have high potential and high growth," the aforementioned person noted.

It can be said that the tokenization of physical assets into RWA will truly promote the deep coupling of Web3 technology and digital assets, achieving the digital redevelopment of real assets.

Looking Ahead: The RWA Market Welcomes New Possibilities for Diversified Development Routes

In the past, the development of the RWA sector mainly revolved around fixed assets like U.S. Treasury bonds, resulting in relatively limited asset types and technology routes. Thanks to the deep cooperation between Ant Group and its Web3 technology brand ZAN with Sui, both parties will jointly promote the tokenization of RWA assets on a larger scale, injecting new vitality into traditional and crypto markets from aspects such as technical support, ecosystem development, and capital introduction.

"By tokenizing traditional assets from low liquidity environments to high liquidity markets," BiFinance Research Institute mentioned in its latest report, "this collaboration will bring quality assets in the ESG field onto the blockchain, empowering the real industry and is expected to become a new driving force for the bull market."

Previously, Ant Group launched the largest on-chain asset platform for renewable energy in China, composed of the "Asset Chain," "Transaction Chain," and "Ant Chain Trusted Cross-Chain Bridge," with over 12 million devices on-chain; the Web3 product ZAN aimed at overseas markets has also been launched. The total market capitalization of the Sui blockchain has reached $13 billion, with total locked value (TVL) exceeding $18.9 billion. After the announcement of their collaboration, the price of Sui surged 10% within 24 hours, setting a new historical high.

In the future, with the support of Sui's ecosystem, the RWA market landscape of both parties is expected to undergo a new round of expansion. It is foreseeable that the spring of the RWA market is about to arrive.