Wintermute says RWA could become crypto’s next liquidity channel

Crypto market maker Wintermute said the cryptocurrency market has rebounded recently, but fresh capital is still needed for a full-fledged new bull market, and real-world assets could fill that role. Wintermute said venture capital and ICOs in 2017-2018, stablecoins in 2020-2021, and ETFs and corporate crypto reserve holders in 2024-2025 all accelerated bull markets. The firm added that tokenized real-world assets, or RWA, could become the next major liquidity channel. It said the value of on-chain asset tokens has doubled over the past year to more than $300 billion and kept expanding even during periods of declining stablecoin supply. According to Wintermute, the initial funds used to buy RWA came from capital previously allocated to traditional assets such as Apple shares and U.S. Treasuries. Once that capital moves onto blockchain rails, however, barriers to shifting into BTC, altcoins and DeFi could fall sharply, the firm said. As regulatory frameworks become clearer and tokenized Treasuries and funds begin to be used as collateral across multiple platforms and in DeFi, RWA could drive a slower but longer-lasting market cycle, Wintermute added.