Lado Okhotnikov, CEO of the Meta Force metaverse, reviews various categories of projects operating in the field of real-world assets tokenization - from centralized stablecoins USDT and USDC to tokenized securities and real estate. The review also covers technical features and the involvement of major institutional players in this sphere.
NFT (Non-Fungible Token) are unique digital assets, the record of ownership of which is stored in the blockchain. Each NFT is completely unique and can only have one owner.
RWA (Real World Assets) are digitized real world assets stored on the blockchain, corresponding to a share in a physical asset, such as a work of art or real estate. Unlike NFTs, RWA tokens can have multiple owners who receive rights to part of the underlying asset.
The first thing that comes to mind is that RWA will help turn low-liquidity instruments into highly liquid ones by attracting investors who usually find it difficult to enter the project due to high financial barriers.
To put it simply, an object is divided into shares, where each part is available to ordinary users. Investors pool funds and become collective owners of the represented tokens on the blockchain.
Lado Okhotnikov gives a good example of how a business can take advantage of the RWA concept:
"Let's suppose that someone wants to purchase an expensive piece of art. Due to the high price of the asset the investor cannot buy it out completely since, after all, the NFT format suggests that the non-fungible tokens can not be divided. In this case, the owner carries out tokenization and sells parts in the form of tokens to different investors. Participants become co-owners of the work of art, with each owning a certain share in the form of tokens. Tokenization in this case makes an expensive asset more accessible to everyone."
Indeed, pieces of art, like jewelry, cannot be divided into parts and sold piece by piece in the real world. Tokenization allows this.
The situation with real estate is similar - there are many restrictions when purchasing: from the number of owners to legal difficulties. For example, it is not always possible for a foreign citizen to buy property in another country. Tokenization removes such barriers.
The first successful tokenization - Lado Okhotnikov about the American dollar
Since along with the crypto market activation there was nothing similar in 2012, the idea of creating stablecoins was original. This is how the first cryptocurrency Tether appeared, which was tied to the paper dollar.
In fact, USDT was not created in 2014, as everyone believes, but two years earlier. Brock Pierce, Craig Sellars and Reeve Collins teamed up to form Realcoin, a startup whose predecessor was the Mastercoin cryptocurrency.
Afterwards, other stables began to appear, including the now famous USDC, DAI, TUSD and USDP. Together with Tether, they became the first successful implementation of the asset tokenization concept, currently occupying an impressive market share - 97% of all existing tokenized assets are behind them.
Initially, the creators of Tether announced full support for USDT in US dollars. However, after a trial in 2018, it became clear that the collateral actually included not only cash dollars, but also loans from credit institutions.
This is an important clarification in understanding how USDT works. Thus, there was an increase in confidence in tokenized assets on the part of creditors. Since then, investors have trusted the "digital copy" of the real dollar so much that they did not hesitate to lend it as well.
Given the growing popularity of tokenized assets, it took very little time to gain the trust of large institutions. It is logical to assume that if there is a surge in this niche in 2024, then by mid-2025 this market will reach its peak.
The traditional financial sector is also optimistic about the prospects for tokenization of gold, stocks and commodities, with which it already works in the classical markets.
Thus, in 2021 the largest investment fund Franklin Templeton launched a Franklin OnChain U.S.Government Money Fund based on a Stellar blockchain, and in 2023 expanded it to Polygon. It is the first US-registered mutual fund to use a public blockchain to conduct transactions and record ownership.
At the same time, a Bank of America report calls RWA tokenization "a key driver of digital token development." According to them, over $1 billion has already been invested in tokenized gold. At the end of the past year CoinDesk calculated that the total capitalization of tokenized money market funds is approaching $500 million. According to Boston Consulting Group, the size of the market for tokenized assets could reach $16 trillion. Moreover, the main growth is planned for the period from 2025 to 2030.
Opinion: tokenization will help attract capital - Lado Okhotnikov sees this as a solution to the problem of low liquidity
If the concept is more or less clear with the tokenization of currencies, precious metals and pieces of art, then the tokenization of the national heritage objects opens up new opportunities in attracting capital for the implementation of various programs.
For example, by issuing and selling tokens, you can form a fund for the restoration of historical and cultural monuments. Investors who purchase such tokens become co-owners of the virtual object on the basis of shared ownership.
Expert in the field of tokenization Lado Okhotnikov agrees that in reality the investor will not receive ownership rights to the national heritage object, but virtually this will bring him income.
"The money raised from the sale of tokens is used to restore and maintain the proper condition of historical and cultural monuments. As a result, such cultural heritage sites begin to attract tourists, and income from the tourism industry is distributed between investors and the state in proportion to the number of tokens in their ownership," says the expert.
Investors actually finance restoration work, and in return receive the right to a portion of the income from the increased tourist flow. Even without legal ownership, they become interested in the development and popularization of a cultural heritage site.
Experts also note the potential of using tokens for crowdfunding financing of cinema and other cultural sectors. This approach can attract a wide range of retail and institutional investors.
Conclusion
There are already several companies actively involved in real estate tokenization. For example, Lofty tokenizes residential spaces such as houses and apartments, while SliceSpace specializes in commercial real estate such as offices and coworking spaces. However, they lack versatility.
In this sense, Meta Force is ahead of its competitors. Key benefits include ultra-low transaction fees, fast processing, and fork immunity. Unlike other blockchains that may diverge into alternative chains, the blockchain on which Meta Force is based, guarantees the immutability of confirmed transactions.
The smooth operation of Meta Force is a testament to its robust architecture. Reliable performance eliminates unplanned outages or network congestion issues that could disrupt asset ownership and transactions.
In addition, support for smart contracts on Meta Force has completely simplified the creation and deployment of projects within the metaverse.
The implementation of ZK rollups (zero knowledge proofs for merging transactions and reducing the amount of data on the blockchain) is a key part of the Polygon blockchain on which Meta Force is based. In simple words, such a serious approach to development makes the network attractive to people who require quick payments, which is precisely the NFT market.
So, within Meta Force, transaction costs are minimized and an efficient infrastructure for managing real-world assets is created. The platform's features include resistance to forks, uninterrupted operation, assets standardization and complete security - which all together turn the metaverse into a leader in the management of tokenized RWA assets.
Based on Dan Michael materials
The head of Meta Force Press Center