Near Protocol and Ondo Lead Tokenized RWA Revolution in US Market
The US Government's efforts to migrate Traditional Finance (TradFi) on-chain have sparked interest in Tokenized Real-World Assets (RWAs), and Near Protocol (NEAR) and Ondo are leading the charge. In March, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) partnered with Securitize to develop infrastructure for tokenized securities, while Nasdaq received approval from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to tokenize US securities.
The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act failed to advance in the Senate due to Democratic senators' concerns over ethics language tied to President Trump's family crypto holdings. However, the US SEC rolled out the 'Innovation Exemption,' granting selected exchanges a five-year path for trading tokenized US stocks through permissioned automated market makers and liquidity pools.
Near Protocol's multichain transaction pool, NEAR Intents, offers confidential perpetuals and tokenized assets in partnership with Ondo. Users can access US stocks, Treasury bills, and Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), subject to strict Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements. NEAR Intents has shown it can intercept money-laundering activity, blocking a recent attempt to cash out $50 million linked to the Bitget exchange hack.
Ondo offers around 460 tokenized assets to more than 515,000 holders, with nearly 25% growth in holder count over the last 30 days. The transfer volume last month totaled roughly $2.30 billion, a 50% increase from the previous month. NEAR Intents' Confidential Total Value Locked stands at $156.43 million on September 29.