RWA track financing review for the first three quarters: 26 companies raised nearly 250 million dollars, with nearly half in seed rounds

Author: Nancy, PANews

RWA is one of the fastest-growing segments in the market this year, with various institutions and funds competing to invest. This article reviews 26 RWA projects that announced financing in 2024, which have collectively attracted $250 million in funding this year, mostly in the million-dollar range; at the same time, the investment enthusiasm for RWA has significantly increased since the second quarter of this year, and the types of funded projects are quite diverse.

$250 Million in Financing Secured This Year, New Projects More Favored

The influx of capital often reflects the development trends of the market, and currently, VCs are also inclined to seek new opportunities and growth points within the RWA narrative. According to incomplete statistics from PANews, the 26 RWA projects that announced financing this year have cumulatively secured $380 million in funding, with nearly $250 million raised this year alone, a figure that has already surpassed last year's total financing amount of $247 million, further highlighting the popularity of RWA this year.

In terms of financing scale, the average investment amount for these projects this year is approximately $10.314 million, primarily driven up by the three highest-funded projects: Securitize, Huma Finance, and Lumia, which secured $47 million, $38 million, and $25 million respectively, accounting for nearly half of the total financing amount, while the remaining projects generally reached the million-dollar level.

Moreover, in terms of financing rounds, 10 projects have received multiple rounds of investment. For example, Securitize has secured five rounds of financing since its establishment in 2017, Centrifuge has also been funded five times over six years, and Lumia completed three rounds of financing since its launch in 2018. This year, projects like Lumia, Zoth, and MANTRA have also received multiple investments over several months, with continuous financing capabilities providing a greater competitive advantage for these projects.

The overall financing pace for RWA accelerated starting in May this year, with 11 RWA projects announcing financing in May, and seven projects disclosing investment in the third quarter.

Regarding the distribution of financing rounds, investment activities mainly focus on early-stage and growth-stage projects, predominantly in seed rounds, strategic rounds, and Series A rounds. Specifically, seed rounds are the most frequent, with as many as 12 occurrences, accounting for 46.2% of the total financing; followed by five strategic investments, accounting for 19.2%; and two Series A rounds, with the remaining seven rounds not disclosing specific information. This indicates that capital is more inclined towards growth-stage enterprises.

In fact, upon examining the establishment dates of the projects, it can be found that the vast majority have been launched for only two to three years, with 62.5% of the projects launched after 2022, and only nine projects established over three years ago. The types of RWA projects are also quite diverse, including lending, AI, L2, real estate, stablecoins, PayFi, and bonds.

Of course, behind the large-scale capital influx, there are numerous star-level investment institutions, including BlackRock, Nomura Holdings, Binance Labs, Circle Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, and Wintermute, all competing and positioning themselves in this space.

Market Size Achieves Double-Digit Surge, RWA Ranks First in Growth Rate This Year

As one of the main narratives for capital investment, RWA has gradually entered the mainstream view and has become one of the few segments in the crypto field with a significant increase in market size this year.

Total Market Value of RWA Excluding Stablecoins Source: RWA.xyz

According to data from RWA.xyz, as of September 25, the market value of RWA, excluding stablecoins, has exceeded $12.6 billion. Among them, the tokenized U.S. Treasury market has performed particularly well, with a market value nearing $2.22 billion, including BlackRock's BUIDL and Franklin's FOBXX managing approximately $520 million and $430 million, respectively.

Moreover, the overall growth rate of the RWA segment is indeed impressive. According to data from Artemis, from the beginning of this year to now, the market value of RWA has ranked first with a staggering growth rate of 301%, far exceeding popular segments such as MEME, AI, DeFi, and DePIN.

Market Value Growth Rate Performance of Various Segments This Year Source: Artemis

Additionally, the user base of RWA is also growing rapidly. Dune data shows that the number of RWA token holders on Ethereum has exceeded 136,000, an increase of 134.5% since the beginning of the year.

RWA Token Holders on Ethereum Source: Dune@j1002

As the RWA ecosystem expands significantly, the industry also recognizes and is optimistic about the future development prospects of this segment. For example, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently expressed support for the idea of selling company shares in tokenized form, associating it with the RWA concept, and hopes to see more diverse RWAs appear on-chain, allowing applications to utilize them without being constrained by systemic risks from a single issuer or asset class; Colin Butler, head of global institutional capital at Polygon, predicts that tokenized RWA represents a $30 trillion market opportunity, driven by high-net-worth individuals and private equity funds, as tokenization brings liquidity and accessibility to historically illiquid asset classes; Real Vision's chief crypto analyst Jamie Coutts stated that if the current two-year compound annual growth rate of 121% continues, the value of tokenized traditional assets could reach around $1.3 trillion by 2030; Standard Chartered and Synpulse have also predicted that by 2034, the scale of tokenized RWA could reach $30.1 trillion.