Real-world asset markets slipped modestly in the Sept. 11 to Sept. 18 reporting window, but participation kept expanding. According to the latest data cited by PANews from RWA.xyz, total on-chain RWA market capitalization fell to $38.53 billion as of Sept. 18, 2026, down 0.75% from the same point a month earlier. The number of asset holders, however, climbed to 4.436 million, up 85.84% month over month.
Stablecoins continued to grow across several metrics. Total market capitalization reached $303.35 billion, up 1.58% from a month earlier. Monthly transfer volume came in at $7.03 trillion, up 14.41%. Monthly active addresses rose to 54.64 million, up 5.79%, while the number of holders increased to 289 million, up 3.22%.
RWA and stablecoin snapshot
Among the largest stablecoins, USDT, USDC and USDS remained the top three by size. USDT market capitalization increased 1.53% from a month earlier, USDC edged up 0.02%, and USDS slipped 0.01%.
PANews described the week as one in which RWA valuations softened slightly while user growth stayed strong. Stablecoins, in its view, remained steady, with market value, transfer activity, active addresses and holder counts all moving higher together.
Regulation: the U.S., Hong Kong, Europe and others move ahead
SEC approves Innovation Exemption for tokenized NMS stocks
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Sept. 17 that tokenization could reduce costs across issuance, trading, transfer, settlement and ownership recordkeeping, while improving transparency and liquidity. The agency approved a temporary, conditional Innovation Exemption that allows tokenized National Market System stocks to trade in limited form on certain blockchain-based venues known as tokenized securities venues, or TSVs.
Under the exemption, eligible TSVs may use automated market makers and liquidity pools for approved trading activity, but they must meet requirements on public disclosure, trading transparency, circuit-breaker coordination, record retention and technical safeguards. They also face limits on the number of stock symbols and trading volume.
The SEC said the purpose is to observe how on-chain venues and market participants operate and to gather data for future long-term rulemaking. PANews noted that NMS stands for National Market System and refers to major U.S.-listed stocks that fall under the national market trading and quotation framework.
Hong Kong backs tokenized gold and other RWAs on licensed platforms
Hong Kong’s 2026 Policy Address said the Securities and Futures Commission will refine the virtual asset licensing regime and the regulatory framework for tokenized investment products, while supporting the issuance and trading of gold and other suitable RWAs on licensed platforms.
Hong Kong also plans to normalize digital bond issuance and explore the use of digital currency for settlement, coupon payments and redemptions across the full lifecycle. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority said it will test the tokenization of Exchange Fund Bills before year-end, with the stated goal of helping banks use tokenization more efficiently and around the clock for Exchange Fund Bills worth more than HK$1.3 trillion.
The HKMA also plans to implement central bank digital currency settlement and 24/7 operations under the Ensemble project, known as EnsembleTX, around the end of this year, while continuing to explore more use cases for tokenized deposits.
ECB recruits merchants for digital euro pilot
According to CoinDesk, the European Central Bank has begun recruiting e-commerce and mobile commerce merchants in the euro area for a digital euro pilot. The 12-month pilot is scheduled to begin in the second half of 2027 and will test the technology, operational processes and user experience of a digital euro prototype. The test currency will resemble a digital euro but will not have legal tender status.
The pilot will involve the ECB, 19 euro-area national central banks and selected merchants. Central bank staff will act as users and test online and offline person-to-person transfers, in-store payments, e-commerce purchases and mobile commerce payments. The ECB selected 36 banks and payment companies for the testing phase several weeks ago and still aims for a possible digital euro launch as early as 2029, subject to legislative approval and a separate decision by the ECB Governing Council.
The ECB has said the spread of dollar stablecoins could threaten Europe’s monetary autonomy, which is one reason it continues to push the digital euro project.
New steps in the U.K., Thailand and India
The Financial Times reported that the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority is working with the Treasury and the Bank of England on a dedicated regime for tokenized gold, or more broadly tokenized commodities, and is assessing whether some tokenized gold products or market infrastructure could be exempted from collective investment scheme and alternative investment fund rules. No final structure has been set.
Cryptoslate reported that Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed new stablecoin rules under which licensed crypto platforms would only be allowed to let customers deposit to or withdraw from their own verified accounts or wallets, with transfers to third-party wallets prohibited. The draft also sets a daily limit of 5 million baht, about $150,000, in each direction per person per platform. The proposal is still in consultation, with comments due by Sept. 25, and has not taken effect.
CoinDesk reported that Maharashtra, India’s wealthiest state, is drafting policy to tokenize state-owned assets, including power transmission infrastructure, to fund new transmission lines and energy storage facilities. Praveen Pardeshi, CEO of the state transformation agency MITRA, said transmission lines themselves could be partially tokenized, with 40% to 50% offered in tokenized form. Token holders could share in transmission revenue, while newly raised funds would go toward more transmission lines and solar storage centers.
PANews said Maharashtra accounts for about 14% of India’s nominal GDP and has a population of about 130 million. Pardeshi said tokenization is not privatization, but a way to let more citizens participate in building public assets. The state also plans to draft India’s first blockchain property tokenization law.
Project developments: payments, fund rails and RWA lending
SWIFT starts tokenized deposit cross-border payments pilot with 17 banks
Nikkei reported that SWIFT has launched a pilot with 17 banks, including Citigroup, Mitsubishi UFJ, Wells Fargo, BNY Mellon, UBS and BNP Paribas, to test cross-border payments using tokenized deposits. The stated goal is to enable 24/7 instant transfers between different banks and reduce cross-border payment costs.
DBS, OCBC and UOB complete local tokenized deposit payment in Singapore
Ledger Insights reported that DBS, OCBC and UOB completed a local Singapore dollar tokenized deposit payment on Swift’s blockchain ledger, marking the first interbank tokenized deposit transaction among the three institutions. The banks had previously completed cross-border transactions on Swift Ledger.
The report said most tokenized deposit platforms today remain confined to a single-bank system, where payments are limited to customers of the same bank. Local interoperability means corporate clients can make tokenized payments across institutions.
Ondo unit joins DTCC’s Fund/SERV network
Ondo Finance said its subsidiary Oasis Pro Markets, a U.S.-registered broker-dealer, has joined DTCC’s Fund/SERV platform. Ondo said it is the first tokenization-focused company to join the network.
By joining Fund/SERV, Oasis Pro Markets can connect with fund managers, wealth platforms and service providers, standardize trade processing, reconciliation, distribution and reporting, and replace one-by-one fund integrations with a single connection. The company said that should help tokenized funds scale inside traditional financial markets.
Aave to launch dedicated RWA lending market on Avalanche
Avalanche said in a post on X that Aave will launch a dedicated RWA lending market on the network. The RWA Hub will allow institutions to borrow stablecoins against tokenized financial assets without selling the underlying positions.
Tether’s USAT will serve as the core of the market, providing the main source of dollar liquidity and becoming one of its first major institutional use cases. Aave V4 has been live on Avalanche for only two months and has already attracted more than $20 million in deposits. PANews said the RWA Hub extends that infrastructure into tokenized financial markets, where assets can be financed, pledged and used on-chain.
Centrifuge and NYLIM launch tokenized high-yield bond fund
Centrifuge said the HYB high-yield corporate bond strategy fund from New York Life Investment Management is now live on Avalanche, giving qualified investors tokenized exposure to a portfolio of U.S. high-yield corporate bonds. PANews said NYLIM manages about $807 billion in assets.
The product broadens the range of institutional-grade assets on Avalanche beyond U.S. Treasuries and short-duration products. Avalanche currently has about $1.4 billion in stablecoins and more than $500 million in DeFi total value locked. PANews also noted that high-yield corporate credit carries default and liquidity risk relative to short-duration Treasuries.
Other project updates
According to the Genius.fun website, Genius has launched an RWA launchpad on BNB Chain and plans to let projects convert stock exposure tied to bStocks into real shares held by a Cayman foundation that would exercise shareholder governance rights. The website says the feature is still listed as “coming soon,” and token holders do not directly own or have redemption rights to the shares held by the foundation.
Genius.fun allows users to create and trade tokens based on tokenized shares and says those tokens can be broken apart for campaigns involving real listed companies, including takeover attempts and board-seat contests. The project says creators can choose trading pairs such as USDT/USDC, BNB, Ondo, bstocksfinance and fourdotmeme, and can receive up to 1.25% of trading fees from the tokens they issue. All tokens will migrate to PancakeSwap once they reach a size of 15 BNB.
CoinDesk reported that on-chain finance platform Theo has launched thSLVR, a yield-bearing tokenized silver product backed by more than $40 million in active leases. The token gives holders silver price exposure and income generated by lending the underlying silver to institutional borrowers. Theo said the silver backing thSLVR will be leased to established institutional counterparties on standard market terms, with credit exposure supported by a parent-company guarantee. The product is initially available in beta to institutions and whitelisted investors.
Ledger Insights reported that the Eurosystem’s distributed ledger technology settlement project, Pontes, is scheduled to go live on Sept. 21. Clearstream has already said it is taking part in end-to-end pre-launch testing covering system connectivity, settlement processes and operational readiness. Axiology is also moving through testing and certification, with scenarios that include securities issuance, secondary-market trading, redemption and coupon payments.
Pontes is designed as an interoperability bridge linking multiple market DLT platforms to the Eurosystem’s TARGET services, allowing tokenized securities and other wholesale transactions to settle in central bank money. It uses a Hash-Link mechanism to support synchronized settlement such as delivery versus payment. At launch, finality on the cash side will be achieved once the corresponding transfer is completed in the T2 system.
PANews said the ECB has removed the “pilot” label from the project. ECB Executive Board member Piero Cipollone said in an Aug. 26 speech that Pontes should be viewed as an operational service. He added that the launch phase will carry only a one-time onboarding fee, with operating hours extended over time and a plan to offer 24/7 service and multi-currency capability by mid-2028. The project stems from a two-track plan approved by the ECB Governing Council on July 1, 2025: Pontes in the short term and Appia, aimed at an integrated DLT capital market, over the longer term.
The Block reported that identity-focused crypto project World, formerly Worldcoin, has launched its self-custodial financial app World Money in more than 150 countries. The app includes stablecoin payments, trading, yield and virtual account features. Users can hold eight currencies in the app and make cross-border transfers. Stripe provides a new U.S. on-ramp that lets users convert Apple Pay funds into stablecoins within minutes.
World said users who complete World ID verification can receive enhanced rewards in eligible Earn programs, with available functions and assets depending on jurisdiction. The project is developed by Tools for Humanity, whose co-founders include Alex Blania and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
JPYC Co. said it has temporarily halted reservations for JPYC issuance on Ethereum while it investigates the reason. Multiple users said on social platforms that they were affected because they could not complete issuance and KYC procedures, and some questioned whether issuance on other chains, including Polygon, was also restricted.
Earlier, users shared screenshots claiming that 1 million JPYC had surged to about $21,300 on the secondary market, creating an arbitrage opportunity of about 3.31 million yen per redemption. That sparked discussion about JPYC’s pricing mechanism and centralized controls. The company said it will announce the resumption of service after clarifying the details.
Separately, U.S. stock token trading platform Maitong MSX has listed contract trading for $NET, the global network and cloud services platform, and $IGV, the U.S. software industry ETF.
Funding: capital keeps backing tokenization and stablecoin rails
tZERO closes a new financing round
Tokenized securities marketplace tZERO said it has completed a new financing round led by Marc Cohodes and Max Cohodes. Existing investors Intercontinental Exchange, Bill Fleckenstein and partner Dinari participated, and Neighborhood Intelligence also committed to the round.
tZERO said the financing will support the expansion of its tokenized financial market infrastructure business and help the company move toward capital independence. It described the round as part of a long-term capital plan that will fund operations, the next stage of growth and the development of its infrastructure-as-a-service business.
The company is building infrastructure around tokenized securities and other assets that covers tokenization, trading, custody and asset services, with the aim of helping financial institutions issue and trade assets through regulated blockchain infrastructure. It also plans to expand into tokenization and other derivatives, prediction markets and spot crypto infrastructure services, while looking at strategic transactions to broaden its business.
Deadstock raises $2.5 million seed round
According to an official announcement, tokenized collectibles liquidity marketplace Deadstock raised $2.5 million in seed funding led by Bullish Capital, the venture arm of Bullish, with participation from a group of angel investors.
The company said the funds will help move Deadstock into public beta and support the next phase of building infrastructure for the globally liquid trading card market. Deadstock, created by ATH Labs, is an on-chain marketplace and liquidity layer for physical collectibles built on Arbitrum, combining physical inventory, tokenization, market trading and redemption infrastructure.
Velocity, dtcpay and Fin.com announce fresh capital
CoinDesk reported that London-based stablecoin payments infrastructure company Velocity completed a $10 million Series A extension, bringing the round total to $48 million at a post-money valuation of $200 million. Investors include Visa Ventures, Circle Ventures, Haun Ventures, Ripple, Translink Capital and Mirana Ventures.
Velocity provides backend systems for payment companies and banks to handle settlement, liquidity management and treasury operations using stablecoins without replacing their existing infrastructure. The company had closed a $38 million Series A in July, which it said was oversubscribed. Co-founder and CEO Eric Queathem said that previously “no one fixed the backend layer.”
Stablecoin payments company dtcpay said it has received a strategic investment from Japan’s SBI Group, bringing its Series A total to $25 million. The round was led in April by Vertex Ventures, backed by Temasek, with Genedant Capital, which manages more than $2 billion in assets, also participating. Capella Hotel Group founder Kwee Liong Tek continued to add capital. SBI Group said the investment opens a strategic partnership aimed at expanding a digital asset corridor between Japan and Southeast Asia.
dtcpay is a principal member of Visa and has issued a compliant stablecoin Visa card. Its licensed footprint covers Singapore, Hong Kong, Luxembourg, Australia, the U.S. and Canada, and the company said it is still expanding to provide compliant infrastructure for global stablecoin payments.
Fortune reported that stablecoin infrastructure company Fin.com has emerged from stealth and announced a $20 million seed round backed by Expa and Coinbase Ventures. The company said the proceeds will be used to build global stablecoin infrastructure.
PANews observations on stablecoin utility
PANews also highlighted two broader takeaways. First, it argued that stablecoin value should not be judged by supply alone. Payment activity, fund transfers, collateral use and settlement matter more when measuring real economic utility. Raw on-chain transaction volume, the report said, can be inflated by bots and cross-chain routing, so it needs noise reduction and classification.
The report grouped stablecoin use into four main categories: payment disbursement, treasury management, collateral-market settlement and dollar savings. It said real adoption should be assessed through multiple dimensions including retention, redemption capacity and performance under market stress. It also noted that the Arc network was scheduled to open its public mainnet on Sept. 16, uses USDC for gas fees and is targeting sub-second deterministic settlement, though its practical utility still needs to be tested. The report added that stablecoin infrastructure carries reserve, smart contract and custody risks, and that supply growth can concentrate risk.
Second, PANews pointed to MoneyGram’s launch of the MoneyGram Card, a stablecoin Visa card in Colombia. Users can spend stablecoin balances held in the app directly without converting to fiat. The card initially supports USDC and will later add MoneyGram’s own stablecoin, MGUSD. The digital card waives several fees at launch, with only a $1 inactivity fee after three consecutive months without transactions. A physical card is planned later and will carry related charges.
PANews said the product is supported by Rain, Crossmint, Stellar and Visa, and represents the final stage of MoneyGram’s five-year strategy. That strategy has expanded from cash on- and off-ramps and digital wallets to API services and in-house stablecoin issuance, ending with stablecoins being used in everyday consumer spending.