Crypto news

The real-world asset (RWA) tokenization sector continues to demonstrate explosive growth, and recent developments only confirm this. Hybrid CeDeFi platform Grvt has announced a strategic partnership with issuer Ondo Finance, under which the exchange plans to grow its position in the tokenized product USDY to $100 million within a year.

The built-in annual percentage yield (APY) of 3.5% will be integrated into a unified base rate that users already receive through the Grvt Earn mechanism, including yield from integration with the Aave protocol. In essence, the platform incentivizes users for providing liquidity: after making a deposit, the client automatically begins earning passive income.

According to my data, the total assets under management (AUM) of Ondo Finance currently stands at approximately $2.59 billion, distributed across two key products:

• USDY — $2.1 billion (deployed across 8 networks);
• OUSG (available only to qualified US investors) — $500 million.

USDY is a tokenized instrument backed by short-term US Treasury bonds and bank deposits. Grvt's planned $100 million position would represent approximately 3.8% of USDY's current AUM, which is a significant liquidity injection for the issuer.

This partnership reflects a broader market trend: tokenized Treasury bonds are ceasing to be merely an investment product and are transforming into a foundational infrastructure layer for DeFi platforms. For Ondo, this is also an elegant solution to the distribution problem — the main bottleneck in scaling USDY. The integration with Grvt Earn allows for expanded reach without directly entering the retail market, significantly reducing operational costs.

Grvt operates on the ZKsync L2 solution. In September 2025, the platform raised $19 million in a Series A round, and on July 30, 2026, the GRVT token TGE took place.

Meanwhile, Coinbase, another major player in the RWA segment, is actively expanding the geography of its influence. On August 11, the exchange's management announced the opening of an international tokenization hub in Abu Dhabi after obtaining the corresponding license from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of the Abu Dhabi Global Market. The company intends to use this license to offer digital securities backed by underlying equities.

This move comes amid growing interest from traditional financial institutions in tokenization. Major banks and asset managers are actively moving funds, bonds, and equities onto blockchain rails, seeing this as a way to simplify round-the-clock transfer of securities, ensure instant settlement of transactions, and use them as collateral in on-chain markets.

The new Abu Dhabi division will operate in parallel with Coinbase's derivatives business in Dubai, thus forming two anchor bases in the UAE for expansion beyond the US market.

My take on the situation

The moves by Grvt and Coinbase are not just isolated events but a clear signal of consolidation in the RWA sector. We are witnessing major players beginning to use tokenized assets not as a speculative instrument but as a functional element of their infrastructure. However, it is worth remembering the recent conflict at Ondo Finance over control of the project — such corporate risks remain a serious challenge for investors in this fast-growing but still young segment.