Research

Top 5 Favorite Resources on Real-World Assets

Our top resources to help you get started in real-world assets industry.

RWA.xyz Team
Institutional Research
6 min
|
August 16, 2023

Tokenization and the real-world assets sector evolves rapidly. In helping people get up to speed, we noticed that we kept sending over the same set of useful and foundational resources. Today we're excited to share those with you as well!

These five resources lay the groundwork for understanding how tokenization works, its challenges and promises ahead. Enjoy the list below:

  1. The Unreal Primer on Real World Assets: A philosophical foray into what tokenization really is and where the industry is heading
  2. Not Boring’s Everything is Broken: BlockTower on how blockchains can easily improve the securitization process
  3. Bain’s Private Asset Investing Infrastructure: Dives deep into private asset’s biggest challenges, and thus tokenization’s opportunity.
  4. SS&C’s Tokenization of Funds: Explores the opportunities for asset managers to gain competitive edge by tokenizing their investment funds on the blockchain
  5. RWA.xyz: An interactive data dashboard showcasing protocols, issuers, and tokenized real-world assets.
1) An Unreal Primer on Real World Assets

First on our list is the Unreal Primer on Real World Assets. Published in September 2022 before the popularity of ‘real world assets’, this primer contributed greatly to the tokenization narrative. Written by Teej Ragsdale, Jack Chong and Mukund Venkatakrishnan, this 70-page primer walks through the potential and challenges of tokenization.

It includes legal structuring, smart contracts standards and different layers of tokenization tools. Lastly, they also made a few predictions about what types of assets would be tokenized, what product market fit looks like, and where value accrues in the ecosystem. 

2) Not Boring: How Crypto Fixes the $14T Securitization Market

Published on Not Boring, a blog run by well-known tech writer Packy McCormick, the article is a deep dive into how blockchain technology can revolutionize credit securitizations.

The author, Kevin Miao, Head of Credit at BlockTower, argues that the current securitization systems are massively inefficient, with over 10 intermediaries involved with each transaction. He lays out how blockchains can massively improve the process as well as create entirely new products.

3. Bain: Private Asset Investing Desperately Needs New Market Infrastructure

Published by Bain & Company, the article argues that for private asset markets to thrive, the current model must digitize and efficiently support individual investors at scale. Key barriers include high administrative costs, illiquidity, a difficult collateral process for lending, and high minimum investment size.

The authors also suggest that the largest wealth and asset managers will likely catalyze developments and be first-movers. Finally, the article highlights the potential role of distributed ledger technology in this transformation.

4. SS&C: Tokenization of Funds - Mapping a Way Forward

Produced by SS&C Technologies Holdings, Inc, the report explores the potential benefits, challenges, and implications of tokenizing investment funds on blockchain networks. 

Asset managers will find this report useful as fund tokenization can widen investor distribution and improve operational efficiencies. It also discusses the current regulatory landscape, the role of various actors in the value chain, and how these might need to adapt in the face of tokenization.

5. The RWA.xyz Analytics Platform

And lastly, humbly want to include ourselves in the final spot: RWA.xyz. To date, our platform covers billions of tokenized assets, from private credit deals to tokenized treasuries.

Our mission is to shine light on the burgeoning real-world asset sector and be a shepherd for investors navigating tokenized assets.

Apart from our dashboards, we also publish deep-dive research pieces. Our most recent one was An Allocator's Guide to Tokenized Treasuries, which covered the various issues from Franklin Templeton to young startups like OpenEden. For each, the report surveys the legal, financial, and technical nuances so that asset allocators can better understand this nascent product category.

If you are a financial professional wanting to learn more about the tokenization of real-world assets, or a protocol interested in data integrations, please reach out team@rwa.xyz! 

Talk to the RWA.xyz team for data and API solutions

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