Author: flowie, ChainCatcher Editor: Nianqing, ChainCatcher
The most critical driving force behind this bull market that started in 2024 is the traditional financial management giants led by BlackRock.
The recently launched cottage season first led the rise in the RWA, payment and other tracks that traditional financial giants have focused on. Among them, the tokens Ondo, CRV, ENA, etc., which are closely related to traditional asset management giants such as BlackRock, have seen very impressive increases. In the sharp decline of the market on the 10th and 11th, these tokens are also relatively resistant to declines or rebound faster.
Empowering traditional finance, especially tracks and projects supported by traditional financial giants, may be one of the most certain directions in this bull market. ChainCatcher briefly sorted out the relevant projects. (Does not include Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and XRP encrypted ETFs)
In March this year, BlackRock launched the tokenized fund BUIDL through the compliant tokenization platform Securitize, and its current scale exceeds US$550 million.
Currently, most of BUIDL is still deployed on Ethereum. Last month, BlackRock announced the launch of BUIDL funds on Aptos, Arbitrum, Avalanche, OP, and Polygon. The recent performance of partners or affiliates around BUIDL has been quite impressive.
1. Ondo Finance (Ondo)
Ondo surged 40% last week to break through $1.93, a record high, and is currently trading at around $1.86. It has risen by more than 100% in the past month, and by more than 880% in the past year; its market value is nearly $2.6 billion, and its FDV exceeds $18 billion.
As the leading project in the RWA track, Ondo Finance has a close partnership with BlackRock, which has helped boost its multiple increases.
Ondo Finance’s two core products are the tokenized U.S. debt product OUSG. Previously, the vast majority of OUSG's investment portfolio was BlackRock's iShares Short-Term Treasury Bond ETF (NASDAQ: SHV). In March this year, after BlackRock announced the launch of the tokenized fund BUIDL, Ondo also reallocated most of OUSG's assets to BUIDL. OUSG currently has a TVL of more than $180 million and has provided clients with more than $25 million in returns since its launch.
In addition to its close ties with BlackRock, Ondo Finance also has partners such as Morgan Stanley, Ankura Trust, Clear Street and NAV Consulting in its ecosystem catalog published by X this year.
Most of the core team of Ondo Finance also comes from traditional well-known asset management companies. Its co-founder and CEO Nathan Allman was responsible for the global crypto digital market in the digital asset department of Goldman Sachs. The backgrounds of other core members of Ondo Finance also mainly come from top asset management companies such as Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, and Bridgewater.
In addition to US bonds, Ondo Finance will also launch Ondo Global Markets on February 6, 2025, which will tokenize stocks and bonds on the chain.
2. Curve (CRV)
As a veteran DeFi leader, CRV's recent rise is also related to the cooperation with BlackRock. Curve is an important partner of BlackRock in its entry into DeFi.
On November 30, Curve announced that it has cooperated with the blockchain network Elixir to expand the access rights of BlackRock's tokenized money market fund BUIDL to DeFi. Users will soon be able to use BlackRock BUIDL to mint Elixer's yield stablecoin deUSD. CRV subsequently rose 60% from $0.5 to $0.8, approaching $1.3 on December 7.
As of press time, it was temporarily reported at $1.16. In terms of the increase, CRV has risen nearly 300% in the past year; the market value exceeds $1.4 billion, and FDV exceeds $2.5 billion. The highest price in history for CRV was $60.5 in August 2020, and the lowest price in history was $0.18 in August this year.
In addition to the cooperation with BlackRock, the market demand for Curve has also surged after the bull market. Curve also said that within two weeks of Trump taking office, Curve's revenue had doubled from an average of $268,000 to $581,000.
Recently, CurveDAO also launched the interest-bearing stablecoin Savings crvUSD (scrvUSD) to expand new use cases.
3. Ethena (ENA)
On November 29, stablecoin issuer Ethena and tokenization platform Securitize announced that they will cooperate to launch the stablecoin USDtb to participate in the $1 billion tokenization competition of Sky (formerly MakerDAO) lending platform Spark.
The reserves of USDtb stablecoin will be invested in BlackRock's US Dollar Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), and USDtb is the only stablecoin supported by BUIDL.
Affected by this news, ENA continued to rise from around $0.7. Last week, it reached a high of $1.14 and has now fallen back to $1.1, with a nearly 80% increase in the past month, a market value of over $3.2 billion, and an FDV of over $16.5 billion.
Ethena is also a project in which Franklin Templeton participated in the investment.
4. Velo (VELO)
Velo is a blockchain-based global settlement network that provides individuals and businesses with fast, secure and low-cost cross-border payments. DWF Labs made a strategic investment of $10 million in it last year.
In September this year, Velo announced that it had integrated BlackRock's tokenized BUIDL fund into its USDV stablecoin, providing seamless trading and income opportunities for more than 1 million users in Southeast Asia.
VELO surged 50% last week to break through $0.03, and is currently trading at around $0.026, up more than 84% in the past month, with a market value of nearly $200 million and FDV of nearly $800 million.
5. Chainlink (LINK)
The oracle network is also indispensable for financial institutions to tokenize assets. Chainlink can help institutions link on-chain and off-chain data and unlock some DeFi use cases.
Chainlink has collaborated with a number of traditional asset management and cryptographic leading companies, Web2 giants, and Trump cryptographic projects this year.
Chainlink has partnered with Fidelity International and Sygnum to bring the net asset value (NAV) data of Fidelity's $6.9 billion institutional liquidity fund to the chain in real time. Chainlink has also completed a pilot project with Swiss asset management giant UBS and SWIFT to provide settlement for the subscription and redemption operations of tokenized funds through the SWIFT network.
21Shares has integrated Chainlink's reserve proof system to provide transparency for its Ethereum ETF; Sony's L2 network Soneium has also chosen Chainlink as a partner.
It is worth mentioning that the Trump family's crypto project World Liberty recently announced that it will adopt Chainlink's on-chain data and cross-chain connection standards. In the past 9 hours, World Liberty has also purchased more than 40,000 LINK.
Last week, the price of LINK broke through $20 and reached a high of $27. After a brief decline, it rose again today to break through $29, a 24-hour surge of nearly 30%. In the past month, LINK has also risen by nearly 100%. The last time LINK was above $20 was in January 2020. The highest price in LINK history was $52.88 in May 2021.
As of press time, LINK's market value exceeds $18 billion and FDV exceeds $28.9 billion.
6. Avalanche (Avax)
Avalanche token Avax is also in the recently launched altcoin season, and it is also a token with good growth in the old public chain. Avax broke through $55 last week and has now fallen back to around $50, up more than 37% in the past month. Avax currently has a market value of over $20.5 billion and FDV of nearly $36 billion.
From the news perspective, the recent rise in Avax may be related to Avalanche's layout and growth in RWA, in addition to the "hype" of the founder of Ava Labs hinting that it is in dialogue with the new US government to promote cooperation.
Avalanche has a great advantage in developing RWA. It allows developers or enterprises to create their own independent subnets. Some RWA projects can therefore create exclusive subnets according to the legal requirements of different countries or regions, and flexibly meet the cooperation requirements.
JPMorgan Chase and Avalanche have a close cooperation. Its digital asset platform Onyx uses Avalanche to create tokenized funds.
In addition, other asset management giants and banks, payment giants, government agencies, and stablecoin giants have adopted Avalanche.
In November, BlackRock announced that Avalanche was one of the multiple public chains it had expanded. Tether announced the launch of Hadron, an asset tokenization platform, and Avalanche was also among the first public chains hosted.
In October, Latin American bank Littio abandoned Ethereum and switched to Avalanche.
In August, Franklin Templeton expanded its tokenized money market fund (FOBXX), which had previously traded on Stellar, Polygon and Arbitrum, to the Avalanche network.
Earlier this year, Citibank, in partnership with WisdomTree and Wellington Management, also conducted a tokenization proof-of-concept trial of private equity funds on the Avalanche subnet Spruce. The California Department of Motor Vehicles is also digitizing the state's 42 million vehicle ownership certificates on Avalanche.
Franklin Templeton's tokenized fund FOBXX currently has a scale of over US$440 million. It was initially issued on the Stellar blockchain and then expanded to Arbitrum, Polygon, Avalanche, Aptos, Ethereum, and Base.
Franklin Templeton has invested in about 30 crypto projects, of which Aptos (APT), Ethena (ENA), Sui (SUI), Puffer Finance (PUFFER), SHRAPNEL (SHRAP), LayerZero (ZRO), Spectral (SPEC), and Arcade (ARC) have 8 issued tokens.
Puffer Finance, Ethena, and SHRAPNEL are projects invested in the past year. The tokens of PUFFER and ENA, two projects invested this year, have seen the most impressive growth. Ethena has already mentioned that it has cooperated with BlackRock Tokenized Fund on stablecoins, so I won't go into details.
7. Stellar (XLM)
Stellar is another payment network founded by Jed McCaleb, co-founder of Ripple. More than half of the TVL of Franklin Templeton's tokenized fund FOBXX is on Stellar.
Stellar also has cooperation with WisdomTree, and short-term treasury digital funds such as WisdomTree are also issued on Stellar. WisdomTree launched the WisdomTree Prime application, which also uses the Stellar network to launch it in 41 states.
XLM has risen several times in the past month, breaking through $0.6 at its highest, and has now fallen back to around $0.44, with an increase of more than 260% in the past month. The market value exceeds $13.3 billion, and the FDV exceeds $22.1 billion.
8. Sui (SUI)
In addition to investing in Sui, Franklin Templeton also announced a strategic partnership with Sui in November, focusing on supporting Sui ecosystem builders and deploying new technologies using the Sui blockchain protocol.
Sui is currently reported at $4.81, up more than 53% in the past month, with a market value of more than $14.1 billion and an FDV of more than $48.1 billion.
9. Aptos (APT)
In addition to investment, Franklin Templeton's tokenized fund FOBXX has now expanded to Aptos.
APT is currently reported at $13.87, with a small increase in the past month, breaking through $15 at its highest, with a market value of over $7.4 billion and FDV of $15.6 billion.
10. Puffer Finance (PUFFER)
Puffer Finance is a liquidity pledge agreement based on EigenLayer. In Puffer Finance's $18 million investment in April this year, Franklin Templeton and Avon Ventures, a venture capital fund associated with Fidelity Investments' parent company, both participated in the investment.
Last week, PUFFER also rose sharply to nearly $1, and now it has fallen back to $0.82, an increase of nearly 130% in the past month. Its current market value is more than $84 million, and its FDV exceeds $820 million.
11. LayerZero (ZRO)
As one of the three cross-chain giants, LayerZero has also seen a good rise recently. Last week, LayerZero's token ZRO hit a record high, breaking through $7.4, and now it has fallen back to $6.98. It has risen by more than 77% in the past month. ZRO has a market value of $760 million and a FDV of $6.9 billion.
Recently, it is worth noting that LayerZero (ZRO) will hold a referendum on December 19 to turn on the fee conversion.
The LayerZero protocol may charge a fee equal to the total cost of verification and execution of cross-chain messages. If the fee switch is activated through governance, the referendum treasury contract will collect fees on the local chain and destroy these fees.
12. SHRAPNEL (SHRAP)
SHRAPNEL is a AAA FPS game, and the investment team also includes well-known institutions such as Polychain, IOSG Ventures, Dragonfly, DeFiance Capital, Mechanism Capital, and Spartan Group.
However, the Shrapnel team had an internal conflict at the end of last year. Shrapnel game studio Neon Machine filed a lawsuit against several investors, claiming that they were trying to seize the company's control and treasury.
SHRAP is currently reported at $0.04, with a market value of over $33 million and FDV of over $124 million.
13. Spectral (SPEC)
Spectral was originally a machine intelligence network on the Base chain, and is now positioned as a platform to help users implement smart contract AI programming.
In March of this year, Spectral launched the artificial intelligence application Syntax, which can help anyone start smart contracts for Ethereum and dozens of other blockchains. Users can compile, debug and deploy Solidity code generated by artificial intelligence.
In addition to Franklin Templeton's investment, Polychain Capital, Galaxy Digital, Samsung, Circle Ventures, and Jump Capital are also early investors in Spectral.
In recent days, the AI sector has led the rise. SPEC broke through the historical high of $18 last week and has now fallen back to $13; the market value exceeds $183 million and the FDV exceeds $1.3 billion.
14. Arcade (ARC)
Arcade is a GameFi platform that gives the community the opportunity to earn meaningful rewards from various Play-and-Earn metaverse games without having to play the games directly or own in-game NFTs. Franklin Templeton invested in Arcade in 2021. Well-known institutions such as Pantera Capital, Crypto.com Capital, Solana Ventures, Shima Capital, GSR, LD Capital, and KuCoin Labs are all early investors.
At the beginning of this year, Crypto.com Capital, Solana Ventures, Shima Capital, GSR, and KuCoin Labs invested in Arcade again.
ARC is currently trading at $0.038, with a market value of less than $1 million and FDV of more than $30 million.
In addition to its linkage with Pudgy Penguins, in October this year, VanEck announced the launch of a $30 million venture capital fund to support the development of the encryption and AI industries.
It has also invested in at least 7 crypto projects before, among which GEODNET (GEOD), Parallel (PRIME), and 1inch (1INCH) have issued tokens.
15. Pudgy Penguins (PENGU)
Last week, the fat penguin Pudgy Penguins, which plans to issue tokens in 2024 and has airdrop expectations, also saw its floor price soar to over 27ETH. Pudgy Penguins also has some connection with VanEck.
In June this year, asset management institution VanEck changed the social media avatar of the X platform to the fat penguin Pudgy Penguins, and also wrote: "The boss thinks this is too cute, and it is impossible without pfp." Pudgy Penguins also appeared in the ETH ETF promotional video of asset management institution VanEck.
However, recently, Pudgy Penguins' token plans to be launched on Solana.
16. Parallel (PRIME)
Parallel is a sci-fi themed collectible card game (TCG). The team members of this project include senior developers of AAA games such as "Assassin's Creed" and "Valorant", as well as YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley.
In addition to VanEck, Paradigm, Solana Ventures, Base, Amber Group, Spartan Group and others participated in the investment. The first round of financing was in 2021, and it received a $50 million investment from Paradigm, with a valuation of $500 million.
This year, Parallel also launched the AI survival simulation game Colony on Solana and released the AI encrypted game moon landing plan.
PRIME is temporarily reported at $15.78, up more than 53% in just one month. The current market value exceeds $566 million, and FDV exceeds $1.7 billion.
17. GEODNET (GEOD)
GEODNET is a DEPIN project that uses a new type of rooftop space weather station to collect dense real-time geospatial data from the earth and its atmosphere. In addition to VanEck, Animoca Brands, Pantera Capital, CoinFund and IoTeX are all its investors. Animoca Brands has also reached a strategic partnership with GEODNET.
GEOD is temporarily reported at $0.24, with no significant increase recently, with a market value of more than $48 million and an FDV of more than $240 million.
18. 1inch (1INCH)
The old DEX aggregator 1inch is also the second largest aggregator in terms of market share. 1INCH broke through $0.6 last week and has now fallen back to $0.51, up more than 63% in the past month; the market value exceeds $720 million, and the FDV exceeds $777 million.
After the price of the coin rose last week, the 1inch team sold 1INCH for three consecutive days from the 5th to the 7th, exchanging a total of 15.698 million 1INCH for 8.38 million USDC, with an average selling price of $0.533.
In addition to applying for XRP ETF, WisdomTree has also been actively tokenizing funds and other RWA products recently.
WisdomTree recently stated that platform users can now directly consume funds from the WisdomTree Government Money Market Digital Fund (WTGXX) through their Visa debit cards. Currently, the fund manages approximately $12 million in assets.
In addition, WisdomTree has also launched the RWA platform, allowing users to access its regulatory fund tokens through any wallet or blockchain network, and plans to eventually expand access to these assets.
WisdomTree has also obtained a NYDFS license and will launch the encryption application WisdomTree Prime.
WisdomTree's short-term Treasury digital fund launched in 2022 was also first deployed on Ethereum and Stellar. WisdomTree has also conducted a tokenization proof-of-concept test for private equity funds on the Avalanche subnet Spruce.
Goldman Sachs' layout in the encryption field in 2025 is also worth paying attention to.
Recently, market news said that Goldman Sachs CEO said that if regulators allow, it will "evaluate" participating in the Bitcoin or Ethereum market. Goldman Sachs' attention to cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin may also be an important shift.
Previously, the head of Goldman Sachs' digital assets said in the middle of this year that it plans to launch three tokenization projects by the end of the year, including its first US project. Goldman Sachs is expanding its cryptocurrency services, focusing on the tokenization field, issuing "real-world assets" such as money market funds and real estate through public or private blockchains.
Goldman Sachs has not yet disclosed more project content and partners of the tokenized fund, so you can continue to pay attention.
Goldman Sachs has also previously invested in asset management or infrastructure projects such as Circle, BitGO, Blockdaemon, and Certik.
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