Between traditional finance and the on-chain world, Real World Assets (RWA) are rapidly emerging as a narrative path characterized by certainty, scalability, and real-world demand. As Ethereum and its Layer 2 infrastructure continue to mature, an increasing number of real assets are being brought on-chain — from high-net-worth bonds and consumer goods to real estate and inventory. On-chain representation, trading, and settlement of these assets have moved beyond experimentation and are now entering practical implementation.
The year 2025 is shaping up to be a pivotal turning point for RWA, as this path of integration transitions from vision to execution.
RWA: Why Is the Crypto World Embracing the "Real" Again?
At its core, the crypto market is an ongoing experiment in reimagining financial structures. Since the emergence of stablecoins, RWA (Real World Assets) has played the role of anchoring stability and value by linking off-chain assets to on-chain representations.Now, after several cycles dominated by purely on-chain narratives, real-world assets are once again in the spotlight — but the underlying logic has fundamentally shifted:RWA is no longer merely an auxiliary concept tied to stablecoins or bond products. It is becoming a complete, standalone on-chain asset narrative system.
From Experiment to Exponential Growth: The Acceleration Moment of RWA Has Arrived
RWA adoption is no longer limited to small-scale pilot projects — it is steadily evolving into a scalable trend. In the first half of 2025, the on-chain real-world asset market surpassed $24 billion, nearly a fivefold increase from $5 billion in 2022, making it the second-largest growth segment in crypto after stablecoins.This signals more than just market expansion — it marks a shift in industry confidence. Increasingly, traditional institutions are viewing RWA not as a supplementary path, but as a primary gateway into the on-chain world.
This growth is driven by a combination of factors:
Institutional adoption becomes formalized
Maturity in both regulatory clarity and infrastructure
Market demand for real, yield-generating assets
According to industry forecasts, by the early 2030s, between 10% and 30% of global assets may be represented on-chain. The potential value unlocked would exceed the current total crypto market by orders of magnitude.Whether RWA can truly be “put to use” will be a key indicator of how far this transformation can go.
Ethereum Ecosystem Becomes the Main Battlefield for RWA
For RWA to truly take root, it must rely on trustworthy on-chain infrastructure — and the Ethereum ecosystem is steadily becoming the central stage for this transformation.
Ethereum’s mainnet acts as the trust anchor, responsible for recording core states such as identity, ownership, and settlement, ensuring data immutability and long-term availability. Meanwhile, Layer 2 networks offer efficient execution environments, significantly reducing interaction costs and enabling real-world assets to enter use cases such as microtransactions, consumer-facing applications, and even blockchain gaming — effectively becoming the value transfer engine that links the real economy with Web3.
More importantly, the Ethereum ecosystem continues to advance open standards (e.g., ERC-4626, ERC-3643, ERC-7765), providing RWA with a unified asset language — one that expresses ownership and covers full lifecycle processes, thus enhancing composability and automation.
Under this architecture, the path for RWA onboarding moves beyond just “proof of ownership” and toward “usability.” Assets can be integrated into DeFi, staking, claims, on-chain consumption, and more — creating an on-chain experience of utility, not just custody. Rollups are building precisely this foundational layer that balances cost-efficiency and composability, truly bridging the gap between off-chain and on-chain assets.
Ethereum is not just the “soil” for RWA — it is the core stage where technology, liquidity, and standards co-evolve in this broader on-chain transformation movement.
RareShop and ERC-7765’s Exploration of RWA
As a Layer2 focused on building next-generation on-chain asset protocols, Mint Blockchain is actively pushing the technical boundaries in the RWA space.
The innovative NFT asset standard — ERC-7765 — aims to break through the limitations of traditional NFTs being merely digital collectibles by deeply integrating NFTs with RWA. ERC-7765 not only inherits the basic functionalities of ERC-721, but also introduces a new “privilege execution” mechanism, enabling NFT holders to directly exercise rights related to physical assets on-chain, such as redeeming physical goods or accessing specific services.
RareShop, as one of the first platforms to implement ERC-7765, has built the world’s first consumer-facing RWA NFT marketplace. Through ERC-7765, it achieves full on-chain process management, seamlessly integrating traditional e-commerce with blockchain technology, and establishing a bridge between digital entitlements and real-world delivery.
ERC-7765 represents a frontier exploration in the deep integration of NFTs with the real world. It marks a significant milestone for Mint Blockchain in building a next-generation blockchain asset protocol ecosystem. As the technology matures, ERC-7765 and its ecosystem applications will accelerate the on-chain transformation of physical assets, helping to realize a seamless connection between the on-chain economy and the real-world economy.
Challenges Ahead and Future Outlook
Although real-world assets are gradually being brought on-chain, their large-scale adoption still faces key challenges such as liquidity standards. However, these challenges also point to the direction of the next phase of infrastructure development for the entire industry.
The good news is that with Ethereum mainnet serving as the root of trust, and L2 networks represented by OP Stack providing a low-cost and composable environment, standard protocols are steadily progressing. Meanwhile, an increasing number of consumer-facing applications — such as RareShop — are building closed-loop on-chain usage scenarios with real-world goods.
In the next phase, the competition will no longer be about telling stories — it will be about who can truly put assets to use.
Ethereum Is the Starting Point for RWA — Not the End
The implementation of RWA is not a short-term trend, but a long-term process of collaboration between the on-chain world and the real world.
And all of this is gradually taking shape within Ethereum and its L2 networks. It is not merely a technical path, but a co-evolution of financial systems, value expression, and social structures.
RWA is becoming a reality. The main battlefield is already beneath our feet.
Top comments (0)