Historically one of the best performing periods for cryptocurrencies, Q1 2025 began with a whimper rather than a roar.
TL;DR…
- RWA Hit Hard in Minor Correction: Most RWA tokens have tanked this week, with only XDC showing gains amid a broad market downturn.
- Significant Losses: The market cap for the RWA sector plummeted by 9.7%, nearly wiping out gains from late December. Heavy hitters like Parcl and Clearpool saw sharp declines.
- Silver Linings: Despite the downturn, Mantra and Damac inked a $1B asset tokenization deal, highlighting ongoing strategic moves in the sector.
- Potential Rally: With Donald Trump's upcoming inauguration, there's a muted expectation of a possible relief rally, offering a glimmer of hope for RWA enthusiasts.
It’s safe to say that 2025 hasn’t kicked off in the way that many hoped.
Historically one of the best performing periods for cryptocurrencies, Q1 2025 began with a whimper rather than a roar.
But with Donald Trump’s inauguration set for Jan. 20, 2025, there are muted hopes that a relief rally may be coming up shortly.
Nonetheless, in the here and now, the market is extremely choppy and most sectors are feeling the burn.
Here, we examine how the RWA sector has held up over the last week. But first: a broader look at the market.
>> Did you miss last week’s recap? Check it out here.
Market Overview
The market is steeply in the red this week.
Bitcoin (BTC) is down 1.8% for the week, erasing its earlier growth in January 2025, whereas most altcoins are generally down between 3-8% apiece.
The recent correction appears to be fueled by news that the Department of Justice (DOJ) secured approval to liquidate $6.5 billion BTC seized from the dark web drug marketplace Silk Road.
Source: TOTAL1 MCAP Page
In the last week, more than $120 billion was wiped off the crypto market, seeing the TOTAL1 market cap fall to $3.3 trillion—almost exactly where it was a month ago.
Bitcoin’s dominance remains high at 56.6% indicating relative strength against altcoins, whereas the CMC Crypto Fear and Greed Index has fallen back to 49/100, indicating a prevailing neutral market sentiment.
Unfortunately, the RWA suffered a significant blow with the recent correction, with losses on the seven-day chart seen practically across the board.
Let’s take a closer look.
RWA Market Recap
Despite starting the month strong, the RWA sector was hit hard in the last few days.
Right now, the vast majority of real-world asset (RWA) tokens are in the red over the last seven days, with just one of the top 10 largest tokens managing to buck the trend—that token being XDC Network (XDC).
Source: XDC Network (XDC) Token Page
The XDC token has increased 15.4% over the last seven days and has a $1.39 billion market cap. It has now leapfrogged Maker (MKR) to secure the position of seventh-largest RWA asset.
A handful of other prominent RWA tokens have also managed to remain positive in this choppy market.
Some of the best performers currently include:
- Oraichain (ORAI): gained 29.3%
- Hifi Finance (HIFI): gained 13.9%
- Lisk (LSK): gained 12.3%
- Polymesh (POLYX): gained 3.2%
With that said, it’s perhaps more appropriate to discuss this week’s biggest losers. Though approximately 90% of RWA tokens are in the red over this period, a handful of assets have been hit particularly hard.
Some of the worst performers currently include:
- Parcl (PRCL): lost 33.2%
- Clearpool (CPOOL): lost 32.9%
- Chintai (CHEX): lost 31.1%
- TokenFi (TOKEN): lost 23.7%
Source: Top Real World Asset Tokens Page
Overall, the market capitalization of the RWA token sector has fallen by 9.7% over the last week to $59.7 billion. The sector has retraced almost all its growth in late December and early January, displaying extreme volatility.
According to DefiLlama's narrative tracker, the RWA sector is roughly in the middle of the pack when it comes to market cap-weighted performance. The sector has a mcap-weighted return of -7.3% in the last seven days, whereas the best-performing sectors, PolitiFi and SocialFi, have gained 17.4% and 12.4% respectively in terms of mcap-weighted returns.
All in all, it’s been a bad week for the sector and a poor start to 2025.
RWA News Roundup
Though this week’s price action is rather depressing, significant developments have continued behind the scenes.
We’ve sorted through the noise to filter out this week’s most important updates below:
Mantra and Damac's $1B Asset Tokenization Deal: Mantra has partnered with the UAE-based Damac Group to tokenize $1 billion worth of real-world assets. This blockchain initiative aims to enhance transparency, security, and accessibility in the Middle East's asset finance. Tokenized assets will include a diverse portfolio from real estate to hospitality, exclusively on the Mantra chain.
BounceBit and Plume Partner To Expand RWA Finance: BounceBit partners with Plume Network to broaden its real-world asset offerings, integrating Plume's assets into its CeDeFi infrastructure. This follows BounceBit’s tokenization of Treasury bills and aims to enhance RWA accessibility via its institutional-grade platform.
Novastro Chain Raises $1.2 Million in Seed Capital: Novastro, a movement-based layer-2 blockchain specializing in tokenizing RWAs, secured $1.2 million in seed funding. This investment will expand their ecosystem, enhancing the tokenization of diverse assets like real estate, precious metals, and government bonds. The platform integrates AI to support seamless and secure trading, smart yield, and liquidity for tokenized assets, to enhance accessibility of RWAs.
Eventflo Secures $20M for Blockchain RWA Tokenization: Eventflo received a $20 million investment from Rollman Management Digital to expand its AI and blockchain event solutions, including real-world asset (RWA) tokenization of high-value event equipment like stages and lighting, fostering fractional ownership and investor returns.
>> That’s all for this week’s sector recap, join us next week for another dose of RWA news, updates, and developments.
This article contains links to third-party websites or other content for information purposes only (“Third-Party Sites”). The Third-Party Sites are not under the control of CoinMarketCap, and CoinMarketCap is not responsible for the content of any Third-Party Site, including without limitation any link contained in a Third-Party Site, or any changes or updates to a Third-Party Site. CoinMarketCap is providing these links to you only as a convenience, and the inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement, approval or recommendation by CoinMarketCap of the site or any association with its operators.
This article is intended to be used and must be used for informational purposes only. It is important to do your own research and analysis before making any material decisions related to any of the products or services described. This article is not intended as, and shall not be construed as, financial advice.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s [company’s] own and do not necessarily reflect those of CoinMarketCap.
