Compass Investments

– DeFi protocol Ondo Finance and venture capital firm Pantera Capital are set to increase their investments in real-world assets (RWAs), highlighting the industry’s growing interest in tokenization amid favorable U.S. regulatory changes.

Both companies told Axios that they plan to invest $250 million in RWAs through a new fund called Ondo Catalyst. Ondo chief strategist Jan de Bode said the funds will be used to acquire equity stakes and tokens in promising projects. It’s an arms race in the token market right now, de Bode told Axios, referring to the surge in the number of companies entering the market. Exchanges, in particular, are targeting tokenized stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

As Cointelegraph recently reported, digital brokerage firm Robinhood has launched a new layer 2 blockchain to allow European clients to trade U.S. tokenized stocks and ETFs.

In May, Kraken announced plans to offer investors outside the U.S. the ability to trade tokenized U.S. stocks.

Meanwhile, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is reportedly seeking regulatory approval to trade tokenized shares to help it compete with Robinhood and other trading platforms.

Ondo Finance is expanding its efforts in onchain finance, recently announcing a Global Market Alliance with several cryptocurrency companies to drive the adoption of blockchain-based capital markets. On Thursday, the company announced that OKX Wallet has joined the alliance.

earlier this year, the company launched Ondo Global Markets to move traditional financial markets to blockchain.

It’s worth noting that Ondo is backed by the Peter Thiel Founders Fund, which is reportedly supporting efforts to create a new cryptocurrency bank.

Efforts to create a new tokenized economy are being supported at various levels in industry and government, and SEC Chairman Paul Atkins has pledged to create an environment for tokenization innovation.

After an era of regulation marked by regulation through enforcement, Atkins’ SEC is now focused on how we drive innovation in the marketplace, he told CNBC earlier this week.

A recent industry report co-authored by RedStone, Gauntlet and RWA.xyz found that the market for tokenized RWAs has grown 380% since 2022, reaching $24 billion as of June. It’s important to note that this figure does not include stablecoins, which have a total value of over $250 billion.