On September 2, Wintermute put out a report saying the crypto market has bounced back over the last two weeks. ETF flows flipped positive. Stablecoin issuance has also steadied. But for this to turn into a real new cycle, the market still needs fresh ways for capital to come in. History is pretty clear here: VC and ICO in 2017-2018, stablecoins in 2020-2021, and ETFs and digital asset treasury companies in 2024-2025 all helped push bull markets higher.
The numbers back that up. Stablecoins posted net issuance of more than $120 billion in a single year. ETFs pulled in $63 billion in net inflows, while digital asset treasury companies built holdings above $115 billion. RWA, by contrast, brought in around $16 billion over the past 12 months, or about one-tenth of the peak reached by ETFs and treasury companies in the prior cycle. Even so, the value of tokenized assets on-chain has nearly doubled over a year to more than $30 billion. And it kept growing even when stablecoin supply was contracting.
Wintermute’s point is simple. RWA funds first buy traditional assets such as Apple stock and U.S. Treasury funds, not crypto assets directly. But once that money is on-chain, moving into BTC, altcoins, and DeFi gets much easier. So if regulatory frameworks keep getting clearer, and tokenized treasuries and funds start being accepted as collateral by trading platforms and DeFi, RWA could power a market cycle that moves more slowly and lasts longer.