Research Roundup Newsletter [July 2023]

We present to you our latest issue of Research Roundup, featuring trending market insights in July, charts of the month, and our latest research exploring real-world assets.

Welcome to the Crypto.com Monthly Research Roundup Newsletter!

1. Market Index

The 30-day price, volume, and volatility indices were negative at -1.67%, -12.43%, and -49.28%, respectively.

2. Crypto Market Sizing

Global crypto owners reached 516 million by the first half of 2023. 

Key takeaways:

• Global crypto owners increased by 21% in the first half of 2023, rising from 425 million in December 2022 to 516 million in June 2023.
  • Bitcoin (BTC) owners grew by 22% from 219 million in December 2022 to 267 million in June 2023, accounting for 52% of global owners;
  • Ether (ETH) owners grew by 21% from 87 million in December 2022 to 105 million in June 2023, accounting for 20% of global owners.
• The main catalyst behind BTC’s adoption growth was the introduction of the Bitcoin Ordinals protocol. This enabled NFTs and fungible tokens to be minted on the Bitcoin network. Strong interest from institutional investors also contributed to the increase in BTC’s adoption.
• ETH’s adoption growth was mainly driven by Ethereum’s Shanghai upgrade, which allowed the withdrawals of staked ETH from the now-Proof of Stake (PoS) blockchain.

3. Charts of the Month

Judge Torres of the United States District Court in the Southern District of New York has granted summary judgement in favour of Ripple Labs, ruling that the XRP token is not a security in some situations. This led to a spike in the price of XRP, as markets reacted positively to the news.

Moons (MOON), the native token of Reddit’s r/CryptoCurrency community of over 6.5 million users surged in July. The Bricks (BRICK) token, which is distributed as a reward for contributions in the r/Fortnite subreddit, also rallied. Markets speculated that the recent change in Reddit’s Terms of Service, which now explicitly allows for trading of Reddit’s tokenised Community Points, was likely the catalyst for the price increases.

Read our university article to learn more about Reddit’s MOON and BRICK tokens and their use cases: What Are Reddit’s MOON and BRICK Tokens?

Worldcoin (WLD), a new token that launched along with its mainnet, is making the crypto news headlines. It is a project founded by OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman and proposes a novel solution to differentiate humans from Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the digital landscape. However, Worldcoin has faced criticism, particularly for its use of biometric data (eye scans) for identity verification.

Check out Crypto.com University’s article on What Is Worldcoin? The New Digital Identity Token.

4. Monthly Feature Articles

Monthly Feature Article | Real-World Assets: Bringing Real-World Value to DeFi

RWA are tangible and intangible assets that can be tokenised and represented as digital tokens on a distributed ledger like a blockchain. RWA tokens are essentially representations of assets that are not inherently native to the blockchain, and they differ from volatile assets commonly associated with cryptocurrencies. Meanwhile, RWA tokens, similar to other cryptographic tokens, possess programmable capabilities which enable the inclusion of features and requirements for accredited investors. RWA is a promising application for blockchain technology that is quickly gaining traction. According to a report by Boston Consulting Group, the on-chain RWA market is projected to reach US$4 trillion to US$16 trillion by 2030. 

For this report, we demonstrate the overall RWA market and deep dive into several representatives of RWA protocols while discussing the challenges RWA face.Check out Real-World Assets: Bringing Real-World Value to DeFi

Key takeaways:

• Real-world assets (RWA) utilise distributed ledger technology like blockchain to track assets, with performance and valuation derived from sources outside the blockchain.
• There are two main ways of tokenising RWA:
  • Non-native tokens: On-chain tokens are issued to represent RWA that are managed off-chain by a custodian. This is currently the more common form of RWA. For example, all existing USD-collateralised stablecoins are currently in the form of a non-native token.
  • Native tokens: An on-chain token is issued and acts as the RWA itself. In other words, the token does not represent any other off-chain asset, such as a bond issued on a blockchain.
• Currently, RWA protocols backed by equities and debts dominated the market with around 60% market share in terms of total value locked (TVL), followed by real estate. Regenerative finance has significantly plunged by over 80% since 2022. We deep dived into several representatives of the RWA protocols:
  • Centrifuge is an on-chain ecosystem for structured credit that helps to bring real-world assets on-chain. The protocol is asset-class agnostic with pools for a diverse range of assets from mortgages, invoices, microlending, and consumer finance.
  • Ondo Finance is a RWA platform that creates institutional-grade financial products and services. It mainly provides liquid exposure to US government money market funds.
  • Tangible is an ecosystem designed for tokenising tangible assets. Its stablecoin (USDR) is backed by real estate, and allows users to access RWA on the platform. A TNFT (Tangible non-fungible token) that represents the purchased physical item is issued for purchasing on the platform.
  • Toucan Protocol is a platform that tokenises carbon credits. The tokenised carbon credits are transferred to the Open Climate Registry.

The tokenisation of financial and real-world assets has the potential to become the game-changing use case that drives blockchain breakthroughs. Tokenisation is estimated to grow by a factor of 80 times in private markets and potentially reach a value of nearly US$4 trillion by the year 2030.

Monthly Feature Article | Real-World Assets Project Landscape

RWA tokenisation is progressively gaining momentum, as key participants from the global financial industry adopt this innovation. Citi forecasts in its report that by 2030, there will be approximately $4-5 trillion worth of tokenised securities and about $1 trillion of distributed ledger technology (DLT)-based trade finance volumes. Further studies seem to support this view, with an expected growth factor of 80x by 2030 when it comes to tokenisation in private markets. Additionally, the majority of institutional investors agree that tokenisation will “revolutionise asset management”. Larry Fink, CEO of investment management firm BlackRock, touted tokenisation as the “next generation for markets”.

In DeFi, incorporating RWA like loans, receivables, real estate, and equity has the potential to boost yields through more stable income streams that are less dependent on the cryptocurrency market, which can be volatile at times. Additionally, RWA can also unlock liquidity within traditional financial services.

This report provides an overview of the RWA market, the landscape for existing key categories in the tokenised asset space, and what the future looks like for RWA. Read our latest research that explores the growing landscape of RWA projects in greater detail, exclusive to our Private members.

Check out Real-World Assets Project Landscape

Key takeaways:

• Real-world asset (RWA) tokenisation is gaining momentum as a way to unlock liquidity for illiquid assets and connect traditional finance with DeFi.
• RWA can help boost DeFi yields by offering more stable income streams from credit risk premiums, larger borrowing demand, and more diverse collateral.
• RWA protocols can be classified into two broad categories (not mutually exclusive): Infrastructure-based and Asset-based. In this report, we explore the unique features and market performance of notable representatives in each category.
  • Infrastructure-based platforms enable asset specialists and applications by providing the rails for assets to move through crypto space. The asset specialists can then focus on specific asset classes to source, package, and distribute yields.
  • The platforms can also be grouped according to the underlying assets that they are focused on. These include (but not limited to) money markets, bonds, equities, emerging markets credit, real estate, regenerative finance, and collectibles/luxury goods.
• RWA holds immense potential to benefit both cryptocurrency and traditional finance. We expect the development of infrastructure focused on compliance requirements, standardisation, diversity, tailored risk profiles, institutional participation, and regulatory clarity will become key drivers of RWA.

Interested to know more? You can do so by signing up as a Private member, joining our Crypto.com Exchange VIP Programme, or collecting a Loaded Lions NFT.

5. Alpha Navigator

This institutional-focused report dives into macro trends, market-neutral pairs, style-factor screens, and events. Read the full Alpha Navigator report here.

• Risk assets continued their positive price action in July, although BTC dipped.

• BTC’s 1-month correlations with other asset classes are mostly negative. Its correlation with gold remains strong over the longer-term 12-month period.

6. Crypto Conference & Economic Calendar from Market Pulse

Crypto Conferences Calendar

Economic Calendar

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