Mercado Bitcoin, a prominent cryptocurrency exchange in the Latin American region, declared on Friday its initiative to tokenize $200 million in real-world assets (RWAs) utilizing the XRP Ledger (XRPL).
The real-world assets encompass tokenized fixed-income and equity financial instruments, as per an announcement from Ripple, the blockchain enterprise behind the XRPL.
A report released by the Boston Consulting Group alongside the blockchain firm projected the tokenized RWA market to expand to a $19 trillion market value by 2033.
This agreement arose amid a unified endeavor from the crypto sector and asset managers to establish regulatory clarity for tokenized equities and various RWAs in the United States, as companies enhance their tokenized offerings and incorporate tokenized asset trading into existing platforms.
Related: Ripple seeks US banking license, joining the crypto pursuit for legitimacy
Crypto entities rush to tokenize traditional financial assets, yet regulations remain ambiguous
Ondo Finance, a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol, acquired the tokenized asset company Oasis Pro on Friday to bolster its presence in the burgeoning RWA market.
“Oasis Pro was among the initial US-regulated alternative trading systems authorized to facilitate the settlement of digital securities in both fiat and stablecoins,” Ondo Finance stated.
Centrifuge, a blockchain company dedicated to integrating RWAs into DeFi protocols, revealed plans on Tuesday to tokenize the S&P 500 stock market index, which represents a weighted assembly of the 500 largest publicly-listed firms in the US stock market.
In January, Larry Fink, the CEO of BlackRock, the globe’s largest asset management firm with around $11.4 trillion in assets under management, called on the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to authorize stock and bond tokenization.
John Murillo, chief business officer of fintech company B2BROKER, mentioned that tokenized equity instruments are still operating within a regulatory grey area and lack numerous rights granted to holders of conventional equities.
“There is no direct claim on company assets, no voting rights, and no access to internal financial information,” the executive asserted in an email communicated to Cointelegraph.
Investors are encouraged to comprehend the particulars of each individual tokenized RWA instrument they are considering to ascertain if there are any cash flows, dividends, legal conditions, or smart contract risks involved in any potential investment, the executive added.
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