Highlights of this episode
This week's statistics cover the period from May 1, 2026 to May 8, 2026.
This week, the total market capitalization of RWA on-chain stabilized at $30 billion, and the total market capitalization of stablecoins rebounded to over $300 billion. However, the monthly transaction volume plummeted by 25.68%, marking the largest drop in recent times. This indicates a significant contraction in demand for large-scale settlements and arbitrage, while the number of monthly active addresses and the total number of holders grew steadily. The market is shifting from a "high-frequency trading-driven" model to a new phase that emphasizes both "allocational holdings and scenario penetration."
A critical juncture has arrived at the regulatory front: the U.S. Senate Banking Committee may issue a notice of consideration for the CLARITY bill as early as May 9, with a vote expected next week, and the draft is still being finalized; the Bank of England is considering shelving its digital pound plan and instead watching private tokenization innovations; the Central Bank of Brazil has banned the use of stablecoins for cross-border payments, while Italy, Argentina, and other countries are simultaneously advancing tokenization regulatory frameworks, accelerating the divergence of global policy paths.
At the project level, traditional financial giants are fully integrating with blockchain: DTCC plans to launch a pilot transaction of tokenized RWA in July, covering Russell 1000 index constituent stocks and US Treasury bonds; Japan plans to put its government bonds on the blockchain to achieve 24/7 trading; Ripple, JPMorgan Chase, and Mastercard have collaborated to complete the cross-border transfer of tokenized government bonds; Securitize has been approved by FINRA to conduct tokenized securities custody; Galaxy and State Street Bank launched the tokenized cash management fund SWEEP on Solana; and Western Union launched the US dollar stablecoin USDPT on Solana.
AI and privacy have become new focal points: AWS, in partnership with Coinbase and Stripe, launched an AI-assisted USDC payment solution; Solana and Google Cloud launched the Pay.sh service; Polygon Wallet launched USDC/USDT privacy payment functionality; and MoonPay launched a stablecoin debit card for AI-assisted payments.
In terms of financing, Centrifuge received strategic investment from Coinbase, OpenTrade completed a $17 million funding round, and RWA blockchain platform Balcony completed a $12.7 million seed round.
Data Perspective
RWA Track Panorama
According to the latest data disclosed by RWA.xyz, as of May 8, 2026, the total market capitalization of RWA on-chain reached US$30.91 billion, a 4.7% increase compared to the same period last month, maintaining steady growth for several consecutive months. The total number of asset holders increased to approximately 759,700, a 4.76% increase compared to the same period last month, basically matching the asset growth rate.
Stablecoin Market
The total market capitalization of stablecoins rebounded to $300.84 billion, a modest increase of 0.29% compared to the same period last month, with liquidity pools remaining basically stable; however, monthly transaction volume declined significantly to $8.16 trillion, a sharp drop of 25.68% compared to the same period last month, marking the largest monthly decline in recent times, indicating a significant contraction in market demand for large-scale settlements and arbitrage.
The total number of monthly active addresses increased to 55.68 million, a slight increase of 0.46% compared to the same period last month; the total number of holders steadily expanded to 248 million, an increase of 2.49% compared to the same period last month, indicating that retail investor participation remained stable but did not accelerate significantly.
The leading stablecoins are USDT, USDC, and USDS. Among them, the market capitalization of USDT increased by 2.47% month-on-month; the market capitalization of USDC increased slightly by 0.35% month-on-month; and the market capitalization of USDS increased by 3.1% month-on-month.
Regulatory news
According to crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett, multiple industry sources revealed that the Senate Banking Committee may notify members as early as May 9th of its consideration of the CLARITY bill, and has already distributed the draft text to some industry members. A vote is expected next Thursday. Sources said the language of the draft is still being finalized, and further revisions are expected to reflect the priorities of the Democratic Party office.
A source, after reviewing the bill and coordinating with industry leaders, said the overall atmosphere is currently positive, but some clauses in parentheses have raised concerns, and some key clauses that were previously thought to have been resolved may still be subject to change.
According to Bloomberg, the UK Treasury and the Bank of England are discussing slowing down the "Britcoin" digital pound project, with the originally planned "go forward or halt" decision this summer potentially being changed to a temporary suspension. Reports indicate that regulators want to first observe banks' progress in areas such as tokenized deposits, where private innovations could potentially achieve some of the fast, low-cost payment functions similar to CBDCs or stablecoins within the existing regulatory framework. The digital pound is currently nearing the end of its design phase, but it faces public, parliamentary, and some official concerns regarding privacy, necessity, and its impact on the commercial banking system. Internal research within the Bank of England also shows that the marginal benefits of launching a retail CBDC are declining as digital payment methods improve.
The Bank of Italy urged the EU to consider building a tokenized version of the SEPA payment system.
According to Cointelegraph, the Italian central bank is urging the European Union to consider building a tokenized version of the SEPA payment system to keep pace with financial innovation.
SEPA, or Single Euro Payments Area, aims to unify cross-border payment standards within the Eurozone. The Bank of Italy believes that with the development of tokenization and blockchain payments, the EU needs to assess the upgrade path for its existing payment infrastructure.
According to CriptoNoticias, the Argentine National Securities Commission (CNV) has proposed draft General Resolution No. 1137, proposing to improve its regulations on RWA tokenization, expanding its scope to allow a wider range of financial instruments to operate using distributed ledger technology in the country. Prior to this announcement, the existing legal framework only permitted the digital representation of specific financial instruments; the current resolution removes this restriction, allowing any closed-end mutual fund with automatic public offering authorization to migrate to digital asset formats. Furthermore, the resolution extends the regulatory sandbox to December 31, 2027. This controlled experimental space is crucial for fintech companies, allowing them to test new business models related to digital currencies and Bitcoin technology without being entirely constrained by traditional regulatory frameworks, thus enabling regulators to observe their behavior before the widespread adoption of digital assets.
According to Coindesk, the Central Bank of Brazil has banned electronic foreign exchange (eFX) service providers from using stablecoins and other cryptocurrencies (such as Bitcoin) to settle overseas remittances, effective October 1st. This ban applies to fintech and payment companies, cutting off back-end payment channels for cross-border capital flows; however, individual cryptocurrency investors can still purchase and hold assets. Electronic foreign exchange payments must now be made using foreign exchange trading or non-resident real accounts. Unauthorized companies must apply for approval from the Central Bank of Brazil by May 2027.
Local Observations
Yunfeng Financial's Yunfeng Youyu platform launched a "physical gold token" product.
According to official sources, on May 7th, Yunfeng Financial (stock code: 00376.HK) officially launched its "Physical Gold Token" product on its "Yunfeng Youyu" platform. This product relies on the compliant operating framework of a licensed financial institution and is supported by the core underlying tokenization infrastructure of the financial digital asset infrastructure platform AlphaToken. It aims to provide qualified professional investors (PIs) with digital asset allocation services for physical gold.
This gold token is pegged to physical gold, with each unit corresponding to 1 gram of LBMA-certified physical gold with a purity of 99.99%. The related gold assets are held in custody by an internationally qualified LBMA-certified professional vault and have undergone independent verification and auditing. Through mechanisms such as full allocation and segregated custody, the transparency and security of the assets are ensured.
Project progress
Japan plans to put its government bonds on a blockchain to enable 24-hour trading.
According to the Nikkei, several major Japanese banks and securities firms plan to issue Japanese government bonds as digital securities and manage them on a blockchain by 2026, enabling 24/7 trading. These institutions will introduce a yen-denominated stablecoin that can circulate on the blockchain for fund settlement, aiming to reduce settlement costs, accelerate delivery, and improve the efficiency of institutional investors' capital utilization. The digital government bond scheme will allow government bonds to circulate outside of traditional market trading hours, and the related infrastructure and institutional design are being jointly promoted by financial institutions.
US securities clearing giant DTCC plans to launch a pilot trading session for tokenized RWA in July.
According to a May announcement by DTCC, the U.S. Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC) plans to launch limited production trading of tokenized real-world assets (RWA) in July 2026 and fully launch related services in October 2026.
DTCC is a core back-end infrastructure provider for the U.S. financial markets, responsible for securities custody, clearing, and settlement. According to DTCC's disclosures, its subsidiaries processed $3 trillion in securities transactions in 2024, covering asset classes including U.S. stocks, corporate bonds, municipal bonds, U.S. Treasury bonds, mortgage-backed securities, money market instruments, and over-the-counter derivatives.
It is understood that DTCC's tokenization service will be built on its ComposerX platform suite, with more than 50 participating institutions, including BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Circle, Ondo Finance, and Ripple Prime. Initially, the tokenized assets will cover Russell 1000 index constituents, major index ETFs, and US Treasury bonds.
According to The Block, JPMorgan Chase, Ripple, Mastercard, and Ondo Finance have partnered to complete a pilot transaction for the cross-border transfer of tokenized U.S. Treasury securities. The pilot utilized XRP Ledger and an interbank payment network, enabling institutions to execute cross-border transactions in a single, integrated process. Ripple stated that this is a successful demonstration of integrating XRP Ledger with global banking infrastructure.
The transaction process is as follows: Ondo first redeemed Ripple's tokenized UOSG on-chain fund on XRP Ledger. UOSG is a tokenized US Treasury product. Subsequently, Mastercard's multi-token network transmitted the instructions through JPMorgan Chase's blockchain payment platform Kinexys, and finally, JPMorgan Chase delivered the US dollars to Ripple's Singapore bank account.
Bitwise launches its first tokenized crypto arbitrage fund, USCC
Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan announced the launch of the company's first tokenized fund, the Bitwise Crypto Carry Fund (USCC), which aims to generate market-neutral returns through cryptocurrency basis trading. It also takes over the previously managed product of the same name by Superstate, which will continue to provide the underlying technology support. Bitwise cautions that the fund is only open to accredited investors, is offered privately, and its units are not registered under the Securities Act of 1933 or the Investment Company Act of 1940. Currently, there is no redemption mechanism, and investors may face high volatility and the risk of total loss.
Securitize, an asset tokenization platform, announced that it has received approval from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) to expand its proprietary brokerage business through its subsidiary, Securitize Market. This approval allows Securitize to conduct tokenized securities custody business within the traditional brokerage framework, perform on-chain atomic swaps and clearing and settlement between tokenized securities and stablecoins, and participate in the primary and secondary issuance, underwriting, and sale of tokenized securities.
Datavault AI and Kings Mine Capital reach $150 million gold tokenization agreement
According to Businesswire, Nasdaq-listed Datavault AI announced a strategic partnership with King Mining Capital to jointly launch a GoldVault™ tokenization program worth over $150 million, while simultaneously advancing equity investments, physical gold acquisitions, and a mining revenue-linked structure.
Under the agreement, Datavault AI will acquire a 5% stake in King Mining Capital and an additional 5% stake upon completion of the tokenization project. The company also plans to acquire 20,000 ounces of physical gold at a 30% discount through stock payment.
Bullish completes tokenization of 151 million shares on Solana
Solana disclosed on its X platform that cryptocurrency exchange Bullish has tokenized all 151 million of its shares onto the blockchain, migrating its entire equity structure table to the Solana network after acquiring Equiniti. Bullish CEO Thomas Farley announced this news at Consensus 2026 by performing a live wallet-to-wallet share transfer using his Phantom wallet.
Solana and Google Cloud have partnered to launch Pay.sh, a stablecoin payment service for AI agents.
According to Decrypt, the Solana Foundation has partnered with Google Cloud to launch Pay.sh, a service that allows AI agents to use stablecoins on Solana to pay for Google Cloud and community API access on demand, without the need for traditional accounts or subscriptions. The service connects the agent to backend services through an API agent running on the Google Cloud platform, using the x402 protocol, an open AI payment standard incubated by Coinbase and now managed by the Linux Foundation. It also supports machine payment protocols developed by Tempo and Stripe. The agent pays only a few cents per API call and supports services such as Google Cloud, Gemini, Anthropic Claude Code, and OpenAI Codex, as well as blockchain infrastructure and data services like Helius, Alchemy, Dune Analytics, and Nansen. Pay.sh aims to provide enterprise developers with a new business model for programmable money that traditional payment channels cannot support.
According to CoinDesk, Galaxy Digital and State Street have jointly launched the tokenized fund "State Street Galaxy Onchain Liquidity Sweep Fund (SWEEP)," which migrates cash management and yield products to the blockchain network to achieve on-chain liquidity management that operates 24/7.
This product allows institutional investors to allocate stablecoins into the fund, maintaining the ability to subscribe and redeem at any time while earning returns, thus overcoming the trading session limitations of traditional money market funds. The fund is initially built on Solana and plans to expand to Ethereum and Stellar.
Galaxy is responsible for the tokenization infrastructure, Anchorage Digital provides custody services, and State Street manages the underlying traditional securities assets.
This launch continues the trend of institutions exploring on-chain cash management. Previously, BlackRock's BUIDL fund had validated institutional demand for tokenized US Treasury products, driving continuous inflows of funds into on-chain fixed-income assets. State Street currently manages over $5 trillion in assets, and this move is seen as an important step in its comprehensive tokenization of traditional financial products, while also marking the gradual extension of on-chain financial infrastructure into the field of institutional-grade cash management.
Anchorage Digital plans to launch a "Cashless" stablecoin reserve model on Solana.
According to official sources, Anchorage Digital, a US-chartered digital asset bank, plans to launch a "Cashless" stablecoin reserve model on Solana to improve the liquidity, capital efficiency, and security of large-scale institutional stablecoin issuers. This model holds reserve assets in interest-bearing, low-risk tokenized instruments on Solana, meeting redemption needs through instant liquidity and reducing the need for static cash buffers. Anchorage Digital will issue and manage stablecoins on behalf of institutional partners and is currently exploring potential tokenization solutions with JPMorgan Asset Management to support its liquidity framework.
SoFi has expanded its stablecoin, SoFiUSD, to the Solana network.
According to The Block, SoFi Technologies announced the launch of its stablecoin, SoFiUSD, on Solana. Ben Reynolds, Head of Corporate Banking at SoFi, stated that Solana is well-suited for payment scenarios in terms of cost, settlement speed, and throughput. SoFiUSD is scheduled to launch in December 2025, initially deployed on Ethereum, with plans to expand to more networks in the future. Last month, SoFi extended its partnership with Mastercard, positioning SoFiUSD as the settlement currency for its global payments network.
Western Union launches USDPT, a stablecoin on the Solana blockchain.
According to Businesswire, Western Union, a major cross-border remittance company, has officially announced the launch of USDPT, a stablecoin on the Solana blockchain, further expanding its presence in the blockchain-based cross-border payment field.
USDPT, issued by Anchorage Digital Bank, a US federally chartered crypto bank, is backed by a 1:1 US dollar reserve to ensure value stability. It leverages the high performance of the Solana blockchain to achieve efficient and low-cost on-chain transaction settlement. The core objective of this stablecoin is to provide a professional on-chain settlement layer for cross-border payments, deeply integrating the efficient settlement characteristics of blockchain technology with the advantages of Western Union's global compliance system and extensive distribution network.
USDPT has been confirmed to be directly integrated into Western Union's global payment system, primarily for building a more efficient settlement layer. Initially, it will mainly serve the company's global agents and partners, and will gradually expand to consumer application scenarios in the future, further optimizing the efficiency and experience of cross-border payments and promoting the integration of traditional cross-border remittances with encrypted infrastructure.
AWS, in partnership with Coinbase and Stripe, launched an AI Agent USDC payment solution.
According to The Block, Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced the launch of "Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Payments," partnering with Coinbase and Stripe to provide AI agents with the ability to execute transactions using stablecoins. Developers can use Coinbase's x402 protocol and Stripe-supported infrastructure to enable AI agents to make micro-payments using USDC for accessing web content, APIs, MCP services, and other agents. AWS states that this is the first custodial payment capability designed specifically for autonomous agents, supporting funding of Coinbase or Stripe wallets in either stablecoins or fiat currency. The article notes that as the "agentic economy" advances, low-cost, programmable on-chain stablecoins are becoming a key payment channel.
Polygon Wallet launches privacy payment functionality for USDC and USDT.
According to The Defiant, Polygon Labs launched a stablecoin privacy payment feature in its consumer wallet on Monday. The feature, launched in partnership with the privacy protocol Hinkal, currently supports USDC and USDT.
It has been reported that the Polygon wallet now features a "Privately Send" option, allowing users to send stablecoins from Polygon via the Hinkal shielded pool. The sender, receiver, and transfer amount are not publicly disclosed on the blockchain. The transfer will be verified using zero-knowledge proofs; external observers can confirm that a valid transfer has occurred, but cannot view the participants or the amount.
Polygon Labs stated that this feature is designed for institutional payment scenarios and aims to address the issue of excessive transparency in public blockchain payments. The design also includes built-in Know Your Transaction (KYT) screening and is a non-custodial model, meaning that no operator holds user assets during the transfer process.
MoonPay launches stablecoin debit card for AI agents
According to The Block, MoonPay announced the launch of "MoonAgents Card," a stablecoin debit card product for AI agents and ordinary users. It allows users to directly use stablecoins held in their on-chain wallets at online merchants worldwide that accept Mastercard payments. Stablecoins can be converted to fiat currency in real-time at the time of payment, without requiring users to transfer assets off-chain or pre-charge them. MoonPay stated that unlike traditional stablecoin debit cards, MoonAgents Card is specifically designed for AI agent scenarios, enabling AI agents to make direct payments to merchants for the first time.
Bakkt completes acquisition of stablecoin payment company DTR
According to Cointelegraph, digital asset company Bakkt has completed its acquisition of stablecoin infrastructure company Distributed Technologies Research (DTR) through an equity transaction involving the issuance of over 11.3 million shares (with the possibility of an additional approximately 726,000 shares). Bakkt's CEO stated that the deal aims to combine Bakkt's institutional infrastructure with DTR's AI payment engine and stablecoin technology to create a 24/7 digital settlement layer. Bakkt previously announced the transaction in January, along with a name change to Bakkt Inc.
Kraken plans to acquire Asian stablecoin infrastructure company Reap for $600 million.
According to Bloomberg, cryptocurrency exchange Kraken is acquiring Asia-based stablecoin infrastructure company Reap for approximately $600 million. Reap specializes in stablecoin payments, fiat currency deposits and withdrawals, and enterprise-grade financial infrastructure services. This acquisition is seen as a significant step for Kraken to expand its presence in the Asian market and strengthen its stablecoin payment capabilities. Neither party has officially confirmed the details of the transaction.
US-based token trading platform MSX has launched several new spot tokens across various sectors.
US-based token trading platform MSX has launched spot trading for $LPTH, an optical component and infrared imaging supplier; $FORM, a leading player in semiconductor testing equipment; and $APP, a leader in AI advertising and application monetization.
Financing Dynamics
According to The Block, Coinbase has announced a "seven-figure dollar" strategic investment in tokenization infrastructure company Centrifuge and designated it as a primary Reality Asset (RWA) tokenization partner for its Base ecosystem.
Under the cooperation agreement, Centrifuge will become the core infrastructure provider for on-chaining traditional financial assets such as ETFs, credit funds, and structured products on the Base chain. It will be responsible for asset tokenization, structure design, yield APIs, and compliance tools, and will connect to DeFi protocols to expand liquidity. Both parties stated that their long-term goal is to promote the on-chaining of more financial assets, including stocks and potential Coinbase equity (COIN), and to build a scalable on-chain financial market system by combining exchange distribution capabilities with the RWA infrastructure.
RWA blockchain platform Balcony raises $12.7 million in seed funding.
According to Tamradar, Balcony, an RWA infrastructure based on the Avalanche blockchain, announced the completion of a $12.7 million seed round of financing, led by Blockchange Ventures. This brings its total funding to $14 million. The new funds will be used to deploy its on-chain real estate trading and asset settlement service platform in the US market, integrating fragmented property records into a tamper-proof digital register, while also using AI detection technology to combat title fraud.
OpenTrade raises $17 million to expand stablecoin yield infrastructure
According to The Block, London-based crypto startup OpenTrade has raised $17 million in strategic funding, led by Mercury Fund and Notion Capital, with participation from a16z crypto, AlbionVC, CMCC Global, and others, bringing its total funding to over $30 million. OpenTrade offers on-chain and real-world asset-backed lending and stablecoin yield products for institutions, and plans to use the funds to expand its infrastructure in permissioned and permissionless scenarios. Its products include a permissionless protocol layer and the yield vault portfolio framework Curration+, which enables fintech companies, digital banks, vaults, and asset issuers to design yield strategies across RWA and on-chain assets. OpenTrade claims its total value locked has surpassed $200 million, with transaction volume exceeding $250 million by 2025, and is projected to exceed $1 billion by the end of 2026.
According to Financialit, stablecoin financial services platform UnblockPay announced the completion of a $4.5 million seed round of financing, led by Prelude, with participation from several well-known institutions and angel investors including Plug and Play, Wintertermute, and Signature Ventures.
It is understood that the funds raised in this round will be mainly used for the research and development of compliant financial products, to help enterprises integrate the stablecoin system into their daily financial operations, to build standardized cross-border settlement solutions, and to improve the two-way seamless exchange capability between fiat currency and mainstream stablecoins such as USDT and USDC, and to continuously expand the ecosystem of compliant stablecoin enterprise services.
Insights Highlights
According to The Block, a recent report by Pantera Capital states that the current global market capitalization of tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) is approximately $321 billion, covering 542 asset classes. However, the overall on-chain maturity score averages only 2.04/5, with approximately 77.6% still at a low maturity stage, merely "packaging" traditional assets on-chain, and only 2.7% reaching a native on-chain form. The report points out that 168 new tokenized assets were launched in 2025, a 115% increase compared to 2024, and the overall market capitalization increased by approximately 60% from approximately $200.6 billion, showing that "quantity expansion is faster than depth improvement." Stablecoins account for approximately 91.6% of the total market value (approximately $293 billion), remaining the only category with significant size in both scale and on-chain usability. Pantera believes that truly mature tokenization should be characterized by 24/7 settlement, cross-border circulation, reduced intermediary costs, and deep integration with DeFi.
How RWA in the US tackled the challenges of real estate, fixed income, and supply chain finance.
PANews Overview: RWA's core logic lies in transforming the high barriers to entry of traditional assets into divisible on-chain liquidity through the confirmation and tokenization of rights through SPVs (Special Purpose Vehicles).
For example, RealT has enabled global small-scale investment in real estate shares by utilizing the Reg D/S exemption path; Ondo Finance puts US Treasury bonds on the blockchain to provide a safe haven for high-credit, low-risk funds; Centrifuge connects to MakerDAO to reshape supply chain finance through accounts receivable financing.
Despite challenges such as compliance costs, cross-border custody, and stablecoin risks, RWA, supported by technologies like the Aave institutional module and Chainlink oracles, is becoming the most sustainable direction for on-chain finance. In short, RWA is leveraging the combination of regulatory compliance and technological abstraction to usher in a new wave of global financial restructuring.
Strip releases 288 updates, fully entering the stablecoin and AI agent economy sectors.
PANews Overview: Stripe's release of 288 updates marks its full-scale entry into the AI agent economy and stablecoin field.
In terms of payments and fund management, Stripe has launched the Smart Agent E-commerce Suite and the Link Agent Wallet, which support AI agents to execute transactions autonomously and securely, and have added stablecoin storage, settlement and bank card binding functions, covering multiple markets around the world.
In the field of risk control, Radar has undergone a major upgrade, using AI to strengthen its defenses against token abuse and account fraud, and providing intelligent appeal functionality.
In addition, Stripe provides end-to-end support for AI-native business models, from payment flow to revenue management, by launching programmable billing, the real-time Stripe Database, and embedded financial growth tools. The aim is to build a global digital financial ecosystem that is compatible with intelligent agents and highly efficient and interconnected.
PANews Overview: Haun Ventures and a16z crypto recently completed large-scale fundraising rounds of $1 billion and $2.2 billion respectively, marking a shift in the investment logic of crypto capital from pursuing high-growth narratives in bull markets to betting on long-term survival under regulatory cycles.
As the industry matures, venture capitalists are increasingly favoring infrastructures with compliance potential, real revenue, and the ability to integrate into the mainstream financial system. Stablecoins, due to their practical applications in cross-border payments and asset settlement, are becoming a core investment focus.
