Current Status and Panorama of the RWA Ecosystem on Solana: Key Participants and Protocols

2025/08/18 11:34

Author: Aditya Khetarpal, Researcher at RWA; Translated by: Golden Finance

For years, the cryptocurrency narrative has portrayed traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi) as irreconcilable adversaries. One is centralized and slow, the other open and unstoppable. But this narrative is evolving. What we are witnessing is not a clash of systems, but a convergence: traditional finance is moving on-chain, and decentralized finance is maturing to adapt.

This shift is most evident in the rise of real-world assets (RWAs), and no chain is more poised for this future than Solana. This isn't a showdown between traditional finance (TradFi) and DeFi, but a union of traditional finance (TradFi) and DeFi, ushering in a new era of global finance.

What are real-world assets (RWAs)?

Real-world assets (RWAs) are traditional financial assets that have been tokenized and brought online, represented as digital tokens on a blockchain. These assets include both tangible assets like real estate and intangible assets like government bonds, stocks, and carbon credits. Backed by real-world value, RWAs offer a sustainable and reliable digital asset class, bridging the gap between decentralized finance (DeFi) and traditional finance.

Okay, but why do they matter?

To understand the significance of RWA tokenization, imagine you want to share a large pizza with a friend. Instead of giving each friend the entire pizza, you cut it into smaller pieces, with each slice representing a portion of the whole.

Asset tokenization works similarly. When an asset is tokenized, it is divided into smaller parts, called "tokens," each representing a portion of the asset. These tokens can represent anything of value, from real estate to intellectual property. These tokens are managed and traded using blockchain technology, ensuring a secure and transparent record of ownership, making assets more accessible, liquid, and tradable globally.

Why Solana? Solana is uniquely positioned to drive the growth of real-world assets (RWAs) with its high-throughput, low-fee, and scalable infrastructure, which are critical to supporting large-scale real-world financial activity on-chain. With lightning-fast finality and a rapidly expanding ecosystem of native RWA protocols, Solana delivers the speed and efficiency required for institutional-grade asset tokenization. In this article, we will explore how Solana combines the speed and scalability of blockchain with the stability of traditional finance to become the leading real-world asset (RWA) platform. We will analyze key indicators of Solana's RWA momentum, explore the most significant players and institutional partners, and outline the broader RWA ecosystem taking shape on-chain. We will also compare global regulatory approaches, highlight the new opportunities RWAs are unlocking, and offer an outlook on the future direction of this rapidly evolving intersection of TradFi and DeFi. The Rise of RWAs: A New Financial Primitive From $5 Billion to $24 Billion: The RWA Growth Chart (2022-2025) Tokenized RWAs have soared from $5 billion in 2022 to over $24 billion by June 2025. This 380% increase makes them the second fastest-growing sector in the cryptocurrency world after stablecoins. While stablecoins are technically tokenized fiat currencies, they are not included in this analysis.
Combined with transaction fees typically costing just fractions of a cent, Solana is ideal for financial products requiring high-frequency settlement or continuous updates. Whether paying interest on tokenized treasuries, issuing dividends on tokenized stocks, or updating ownership records in real time, Solana's low-latency environment easily supports these use cases.
For RWAs, this isn't just a technical detail. It directly impacts usability and cost-effectiveness. Institutions require infrastructure that can operate at scale without introducing friction. Users expect to interact with assets in real time, without latency or high gas fees. Solana delivers on both counts, providing a blockchain experience closer to what's expected in traditional finance, with the added benefits of transparency, programmability, and composability.
Combined with strong metrics like transaction volume per holder, Solana's technological advantages further solidify its position as the natural home for tokenized real-world assets.
Today, beyond speed and cost-effectiveness, Solana's thriving developer ecosystem plays a vital role in driving adoption of real-world assets. The network has attracted thousands of developers who are creating tools, protocols, and infrastructure that make it easier to launch, integrate, and scale tokenized financial products. From smart contract frameworks like Anchor, to real-time indexing tools like Helius, to RPC providers like Triton, the developer stack on Solana is rapidly maturing.
This growing ecosystem is driving composability, one of the hallmarks of on-chain finance. In the context of Solana, composability means that different protocols can easily interact with each other. For RWAs, this creates an environment where tokenized assets can directly connect to DeFi primitives like lending markets, liquidity pools, and yield aggregators without the need for complex workarounds or bridges.
For example, tokenized US Treasury bonds issued by protocols like Ondo can be deposited in lending protocols, used as collateral, or instantly traded on decentralized exchanges. These interactions are possible because Solana's unified runtime and high transaction throughput keep the system fluid and efficient even under high demand. In traditional finance, integrating the services of multiple institutions requires slow settlement layers and manual coordination. On Solana, composability makes building financial products as quick and easy as brewing a cup of tea. Fast, seamless, and programmable. This is a significant advantage for the RWA industry, which requires flexible infrastructure to support innovation in issuance, settlement, custody, and trading. By enabling developers to build open, interoperable tools and protocols on a high-performance chain, Solana provides the ecosystem needed for RWAs to reach global scale. All of these technological and ecosystem advantages would be meaningless without demand, and that demand is now coming from some of the giants in traditional finance. Over the past year, major institutions have not only taken notice of real-world assets but have also begun to invest capital directly in tokenized products on blockchain networks. Solana, in particular, is becoming a key destination for this institutional activity. Institutional Validation: Big Names, Big Initiatives BlackRock's BUIDL USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund has become a prominent example. BUIDL launched on Securitize in March 2024 and has since expanded to Solana and six other blockchains, growing 240% in less than seven months, from $500 million in July 2024 to $1.7 billion in March 2025. Today, the fund holds nearly $3 billion in assets, demonstrating significant capital inflows and rapid expansion. BUIDL's launch marks the advent of institutional DeFi, offering peer-to-peer stock transfers, daily dividend accrual, and institutional-grade custody services through Anchorage, Copper, Fireblocks, and BNY Mellon. Franklin Templeton's OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund (FOBXX), launched in April 2021 and added Solana in February 2025, currently ranks as the third-largest tokenized money market fund with approximately $594 million in assets under management. The fund is almost 100% invested in U.S. government Treasuries and repurchase agreements, with a seven-day return of 4.2% as of January 2025. As one of the world's largest asset managers, with $1.6 trillion in total assets under management, the expansion to Solana demonstrates Solana's renewed confidence in the Solana network's performance. Institutional adoption will unlock: 1. Market-wide validation: When institutions like BlackRock and Franklin Templeton launch tokenized funds, they provide clear legitimacy, giving regulators, corporates, and institutional investors confidence that blockchain-based financial products can meet high standards of compliance and oversight. 2. Infrastructure maturity: Institutional demands for custody, auditability, and regulatory compliance are forcing protocol upgrades. Securitize's platform acts as a transfer agent, custodian, and fund administrator across multiple blockchains, currently supporting over $2.8 billion in tokenized Treasuries and managing the majority of the top tokenized assets. 3. Enhanced Liquidity and Integration: Institutional tokenized assets can serve as collateral in DeFi, collateralized lending pools, and even secondary trading markets. Smart contracts support daily yield distributions and programmable fund logic, a significant step forward from traditional T+1 settlement cycles. 4. Promote Composability and Ecosystem Development: Institutional-grade RWAs bring new liquidity to Solana; these assets can be combined for lending, trading, and automated execution. As BUIDL and FOBXX flow into DeFi applications, they will unlock a broader yield network and financial engineering ecosystem. In short, BlackRock and Franklin Templeton have elevated Solana's RWA vision from promising potential to a tangible reality. Their on-chain presence not only validates the sector but also accelerates the influx of institutional capital, upgrades infrastructure, enhances liquidity, and strengthens composability. This marks a significant moment in the development of on-chain finance.

Key Players and Protocols Driving RWAs on Solana

As Solana becomes the premier destination for real-world assets, a growing number of projects are leading the charge. These protocols are not only building independent products but also forming the foundation of a fully interoperable financial system on-chain. Each focuses on a unique part of the RWA stack, from token issuance and lending to infrastructure and institutional connectivity.

Ondo Finance:

Ondo Finance has become one of the most influential RWA platforms on Solana. Through products like OUSG, it offers tokenized US Treasuries, enabling both institutions and individuals to invest in short-term government bonds on-chain. Ondo is also expanding globally by partnering with centralized exchanges, fintech platforms, and cross-border issuers. Its expansion on Solana demonstrates its commitment to low-cost, high-speed infrastructure, making its products more accessible and scalable.

Maple Finance:

Originally built on Ethereum, Maple Finance has expanded to Solana to support a new low-collateralized on-chain lending model. By partnering with institutional borrowers and whitelisted credit professionals, Maple enables capital to flow into real-world lending markets like corporate and private credit. By migrating to Solana, Maple can improve capital efficiency through faster settlements and lower transaction costs, while maintaining regulatory consistency and transparency. VNX: VNX is building tokenization infrastructure in Europe, focusing on regulated digital securities backed by assets such as precious metals and fixed income. The platform, compliant with Luxembourg's financial licensing framework, aims to provide European investors with seamless access to tokenized assets. The VNX integration with Solana brings these products into a high-performance environment that supports cross-border issuance and secondary market trading. R3's Corda and Solana Integration: R3's Corda, an enterprise-grade blockchain used by major financial institutions such as HSBC, Euroclear, and the Swiss Digital Exchange, is integrating with Solana to connect institutional finance with DeFi. This integration allows assets issued on Corda to migrate to Solana's public blockchain, unlocking the liquidity and programmability of traditional financial instruments. This collaboration combines the regulatory rigor of enterprise blockchains with the speed and composability of Solana. Together, these protocols demonstrate the diversity and strength of the Solana RWA ecosystem. They not only introduce assets but also build the infrastructure needed to trade, borrow, and use them in complex financial strategies. This growing network of builders reflects Solana's emergence as a vital home for tokenized finance. Tokenized Stocks on-chain: The launch of xStocks in 2025 marks a significant step forward for RWAs on Solana. Backed Finance, Kraken, Bybit, and the Solana Foundation have launched 55 tokenized stocks and ETFs, such as Apple and Tesla, issued as SPL tokens. These tokens are fully collateralized, legally redeemable 1:1, and tradable on centralized exchanges and Solana's native DeFi platform. Source: X Users can now self-custody their shares in wallets like Phantom or Solflare. Fractional ownership starting at $1 makes global access easier, especially for users in restricted regions. However, liquidity remains low for most tokens outside of blue-chip stocks, and price discovery is limited on weekends. Despite these challenges, institutional investor support and growing demand bode well for future growth. Ecosystem Highlights: Collaboration and Integration Strong infrastructure partnerships connect traditional finance with blockchain rails, accelerating Solana's RWA growth. Jupiter and Kazakhstan Stock Exchange: Jupiter's collaboration with the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE) explores dual listings. The goal is to allow companies to IPO on KASE and issue tokenized shares on Solana. This would establish Kazakhstan as a pioneer in hybrid capital markets and signal growing global trust in public blockchain finance.