Huge week for tokenized RWAs as Fed preps DeFi, payment talks

The United States Federal Reserve announced that it will soon host a conference on payments innovation and tokenization in what is turning into a big week of developments for real-world asset (RWA) tokenization.

The Federal Reserve Board on Wednesday announced that it will host a conference on payments innovation on Oct. 21, bringing together industry experts to discuss “how to further innovate and improve the payments system.”

The conference will feature panel discussions on several aspects of payments innovation, it stated. These include tokenizing financial products and services, converging traditional and decentralized finance (DeFi), emerging stablecoin use cases and business models, and the intersection of artificial intelligence and payments.

“I look forward to examining the opportunities and challenges of new technologies, bringing together ideas on how to improve the safety and efficiency of payments, and hearing from those helping to shape the future of payments,” said Fed Governor Christopher Waller.

The focus on RWA tokenization comes amid heightened Wall Street interest in tokenization following the passage of key stablecoin legislation in July and a peak in onchain value for tokenized assets.

RWA onchain value hits ATH

It also comes as the onchain value of tokenized real-world assets is at an all-time high of $27.8 billion, surging 223% since the beginning of this year, according to RWA.xyz. Most of this is dominated by tokenized private credit and US Treasury debt.

Related: $400T TradFi market is a huge runway for tokenized RWAs: Animoca

Ethereum remains the industry standard blockchain for tokenizing assets, with a market share of 56%, including stablecoins, and more than 77% if including layer-2 networks.

Ondo Finance launches tokenized US stock platform

Also this week, crypto oracle provider Chainlink announced a partnership with tokenization platform Ondo Finance for its recently launched Ondo Global Markets RWA platform, which was described as “Wall Street 2.0”.

The initiative brings more than 100 tokenized US stocks and exchange-traded funds onchain.

Ondo Finance stated on Wednesday that the new platform, announced in February, is now live on Ethereum for non-US investors.

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