Author: Climber, CryptoPulse Labs
In recent years, the crypto industry has experienced multiple waves of trends such as DeFi, NFTs, and Meme coins. However, what truly prompted Wall Street's large-scale entry was not the highly volatile crypto assets, but RWA (Real World Assets). Currently, the global RWA market size has exceeded $30 billion.
In recent days, traditional financial giants like BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, and JPMorgan Chase have made successive moves, ranging from tokenized funds and on-chain money market products to tokenized stocks and on-chain yield tools. Wall Street is gradually moving traditional financial markets onto the blockchain.
The true significance behind this is not merely about launching a few on-chain products; it more closely resembles a foundational structural upgrade of the global financial system.
I. BlackRock's Continued Expansion: On-Chain Funds Begin to Integrate with the Traditional Financial System
In this wave of tokenization, BlackRock's moves remain the most closely watched.
On May 12th, BlackRock once again filed a new application with the U.S. SEC for a tokenized fund structure, continuing to choose the digital asset platform Securitize to provide on-chain infrastructure support.
The most significant focus this time is not just putting a fund on-chain, but the formal integration of on-chain assets with the traditional financial regulatory system.
According to the latest structure, the ownership records of on-chain fund shares will be integrated with regulated transfer agent systems and investor admission frameworks.
This means that fund shares held by users on-chain in the future will no longer be just data on the blockchain but will be able to directly enter the U.S. regulated fund registration system.
In the past, many traditional institutions, while interested in blockchain, remained concerned about how on-chain assets could meet regulatory requirements. Now, BlackRock is attempting to directly incorporate on-chain assets into the traditional financial framework, indicating that the institutional wall between on-chain finance and traditional finance is being slowly dismantled.
In fact, BlackRock has long been laying the groundwork in the tokenization market.
As early as 2024, BlackRock's BUIDL fund, launched in partnership with Securitize, became one of the most successful tokenized product cases in the entire industry. Its asset size has now grown to approximately $2.3 billion and serves as an important symbol of institutional entry into on-chain finance.
Many used to think tokenization was just a repackaging. However, what Wall Street truly values is the financial efficiency brought by blockchain.
The traditional financial market involves numerous intermediaries, from banks and brokerages to clearing institutions, each layer representing time costs and fees. Blockchain's greatest advantage is its ability to enable real-time settlement, transparent record-keeping, and 24/7 circulation on a global scale.
For large asset management institutions, if funds, bonds, and money market products can all be tokenized in the future, the operational efficiency of the entire financial market could be fundamentally rewritten.
II. Franklin Templeton Partners with Kraken: Accelerated Implementation of Tokenized Stocks and On-Chain Yield Products
Besides BlackRock, Franklin Templeton's recent moves are also noteworthy.
Recently, Franklin Templeton announced a partnership with Payward, the parent company of the crypto exchange Kraken, to jointly explore opportunities for on-chain tokenization of traditional financial products.
This collaboration covers a wide range of areas, including tokenized stocks, compliant custody, actively managed yield products, and institutional-grade crypto liquidity services.
The most critical point is that the two parties are researching launching on-chain versions of Franklin Templeton's financial products. In other words, some traditional funds, yield products, and even securities may circulate directly in the form of on-chain tokens in the future.
This represents a very clear industry shift: previously, it was the crypto industry actively approaching traditional finance, but now traditional finance is also actively moving toward the crypto market.
Especially Kraken's recent tokenized stock business, xStocks, has validated market demand. Data shows that cumulative trading volume for this business has exceeded $30 billion since its launch last year.
This indicates that the global market's demand for on-chain securities trading is not merely conceptual but genuinely exists.
This is because traditional securities markets have many issues, such as fixed trading hours, complex cross-border investments, and long settlement cycles. The greatest advantage of tokenized stocks is enabling securities to circulate in real-time and be traded globally on-chain, similar to stablecoins.
Meanwhile, Franklin Templeton itself is one of the traditional asset managers most actively embracing the crypto industry. Currently, it has launched multiple crypto ETF products, issued the tokenized money market fund BENJI, and partnered with Ondo Finance to develop on-chain financial products.
From these actions, it's clear that more and more traditional financial institutions no longer view blockchain as a fringe market but are beginning to see it as an important component of the future financial system.
III. JPMorgan Chase Advances On-Chain Money Market Funds: An On-Chain Dollar System Is Taking Shape
Compared to BlackRock and Franklin Templeton, JPMorgan Chase's approach leans more toward building an on-chain dollar liquidity system.
On May 12th, JPMorgan Chase filed paperwork for the JPMorgan OnChain Liquidity-Token Money Market Fund (ticker: JLTXX), planning to launch a second tokenized money market fund.
This fund will issue digital tokens on the Ethereum blockchain, with the underlying assets primarily consisting of U.S. Treasuries and repurchase agreements.
This type of product is particularly noteworthy because money market funds are essentially akin to institutional versions of stablecoins.
They are backed by high-liquidity, low-risk assets like cash and U.S. Treasuries while also offering some yield. Now, more institutions are attempting to move these assets on-chain.
The reason is quite simple.
Stablecoins solve the payment problem, but on-chain money market funds solve the yield problem.
In the past, large amounts of on-chain dollar capital could only sit in stablecoin accounts, making it difficult to earn stable returns. But if users can directly invest their on-chain dollars into tokenized money market funds in the future, the entire on-chain dollar financial system will form a complete closed loop.
This is also why more traditional banks are beginning to pay attention to on-chain finance. They are realizing that blockchain is not just a type of encryption technology but may become a new type of settlement network for the future global financial system.
Over the past year, tokenized U.S. Treasuries have become one of the fastest-growing sectors in the entire RWA market. JPMorgan Chase's continued advancement of on-chain money market funds also signifies that large banks are beginning to formally participate in building the on-chain dollar system.
Conclusion
Looking back over the past few years in the crypto industry, one can see that the entire market is undergoing very noticeable changes.
In the early days, the industry discussed more about blockchain performance, DeFi mining, NFT hype, and Meme coin speculation. Now, more capital and institutions are focusing on on-chain U.S. Treasuries, tokenized funds, on-chain securities, and institutional-grade financial infrastructure.
This means the crypto industry is gradually shifting from a high-risk speculative market toward building a new type of financial system. And RWA is becoming one of the most important narratives in this phase.
