The market for tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) is growing by the day, but contrary to belief, the biggest hurdle to broader adoption isn’t regulation, but a lack of dedicated secondary markets for buying and selling tokenized securities, according to Prometheum founder and co-CEO Aaron Kaplan. 

In an interview with Cointelegraph, Kaplan drew attention to ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood’s recent appearance at the Digital Asset Summit in New York, where she said that a lack of regulatory clarity is preventing her company from tokenizing its funds.

“Contrary to popular belief, however, the hurdle isn’t ambiguous regulation,” said Kaplan, who noted that the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) special purpose broker-dealer framework and Alternative Trading System (ATS) licensing “already provide a regulated pathway for issuing blockchain-native funds that offer efficiency advantages over traditional issuances.”

“The real bottleneck lies in the limited market infrastructure for delivering tokenized securities trading to a broad investor base,” he said.

Excluding stablecoins, the value of tokenized RWAs has increased by nearly 8% to $19.5 billion over the past 30 days, according to industry data. Private credit and US Treasury debt remain the two largest use cases. 

The value of tokenized RWAs has grown rapidly over the past year. Source: RWA.xyz

“These assets currently sit on a handful of blockchains, but there is still no fully public secondary market where institutional and retail investors can buy, sell, and trade them, as they do with traditional securities on Nasdaq or through a brokerage account like Fidelity,” said Kaplan, who identified two general approaches for building out these platforms. 

The first is building tokenized securities markets using decentralized finance (DeFi) frameworks, much like what Ondo Finance, Ethena Labs and Securitize are doing.

Related: Ethena Labs, Securitize launch blockchain for DeFi and tokenized assets

The second approach involves integrating tokenization protocols into existing brokerage platforms that operate under SEC-registered entities and are subject to federal securities laws. 

“Legacy crypto and fintech platforms are already accustomed to facilitating cryptocurrency trading, so you would expect them to seek to broaden their offerings to include tokenized securities,” said Kaplan.

While many in the latter camp do not operate digitally, they “won’t cede market share without a fight,” said Kaplan. “Many are already investing in their own tokenization initiatives, or partnering with fintech and crypto firms, to remain competitive.”

“What’s at stake is the next wave of users onboarding into the digital asset space […] The question is then, will the brokerage industry enter the digital asset space, or will crypto platforms build the next gen markets for investors to buy and sell digital securities?”

As a digital asset trading and custody firm, Prometheum is attempting to bridge the infrastructure gap by building a full-service digital asset securities marketplace. The company claims that securities traded on Prometheum have reduced fees, faster settlement times and increased efficiency.

Related: CME Group taps Google Cloud for pilot asset tokenization program

Investors want ‘digital native’ versions of assets they’ve always known

Perhaps the biggest demand driver for tokenized assets among traditional investors is that they want to access “digital native versions of all assets, in addition to crypto tokens, through a single ecosystem they are comfortably using […] to meet a range of financial goals,” said Kaplan.

One area where tokenization appears to be gaining traction is in real estate. As Cointelegraph recently reported, luxury and commercial properties are being tokenized all over North America and secondary markets are being established to enable the trading of tokenized shares. 

A 2024 report by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) called tokenization a “game-changing blockchain use case in financial services” due to its scalability and near-instant transactions. 

According to BCG managing director and senior partner Sean Park, tokenization could boost investors’ annual returns by roughly $100 billion while increasing the revenue streams of financial institutions. 

Tokenized RWAs as an investable asset class reached an “inflection point” in 2023. Source: Boston Consulting Group

The potential of tokenization has even been flagged by the World Economic Forum in a recent article published by Digital Asset co-founder and CEO Yuvan Rooz. 

In the article, Rooz showed that roughly 10% of the $230 trillion global securities market is eligible for use as collateral. 

“Tokenization, which improves collateral mobility and capital efficiency, could unlock this untapped capital and optimize intraday liquidity so that funds can be accessed and moved within the same trading day to meet payment and settlement obligations,” said Rooz.

Magazine: Block by block: Blockchain technology is transforming the real estate market

April 2 is shaping up to be a pivotal moment in global trade policy. US President Donald Trump has dubbed it “Liberation Day,” in reference to when new tariffs—exceeding 20%—will hit imports from over 25 countries. According to The Wall Street Journal, the administration is also weighing “broader and higher tariffs” beyond this initial wave, meaning that April 2nd is unlikely to be the end of economic uncertainty.

Markets reacted negatively over the past week, with the S&P 500 dropping 3.5%, while the Nasdaq 100 slid 5%, underscoring investor anxiety. At the same time, gold surged 4%, reaching a record high above $3,150 per ounce. The yield on the 10-year Treasury dropped to 4.2%, even as recent inflation data showed an uptick in some of the core components. 

The markets’ is a classic sign of a risk-off environment—one that often precedes economic contraction.

Throughout the volatility, Bitcoin (BTC) dropped 6%—relatively modest compared to its historical volatility, but this does not make it a reliable hedge just yet, although its growing role as a reserve asset suggests this could shift over time.

Bonds and gold lead the flight to safety.

In periods of macroeconomic and geopolitical instability, investors typically seek yield-bearing and historically stable assets. Both US government bonds’ decreasing yield and gold prices’ increase signal an increasing demand for these types of assets.

Gold is having a standout moment. Over the past two months, gold funds have attracted more than $12 billion in net inflows, according to Bloomberg—marking the largest surge of capital into the asset since 2020.

Gold funds monthly inflows. Source: Bloomberg

Since the beginning of the year,  gold prices have been up nearly +17%, while the S&P 500 has been down 5%. This shows a precarious state of the economy, further confirmed by a sharp drop in the US consumer sentiment, which has fallen around 20 points to reach levels not seen since 2008. In March, just 37.4% of Americans expected stock prices to rise over the next year—down nearly 10 points from February and 20 points below the peak in November 2024.

As The Kobeissi Letter put it, 

“An economic slowdown has clearly begun.”

Bitcoin: digital gold or tech proxy?

A Matrixport chart shows that BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) is now 70% correlated with the Nasdaq 100—a level reached only twice before. This suggests that macro forces are still shaping Bitcoin’s short-term moves, much like tech stocks.

IBIT BTC ETF vs Nasdaq – 30-day correlation. Source: Matrixport

The ETF data supports this trend. After a strong week of inflows, spot Bitcoin ETFs saw a net outflow of $93 million on March 28, according to CoinGlass. The total Bitcoin ETP assets under management have dropped to $114.5 billion, the lowest in 2025.

The numbers show that Bitcoin is still perceived more as a speculative tech proxy and is yet to enter a new phase of market behavior. However, some signs of this potential transition are already apparent.

Related: Worst Q1 for BTC price since 2018: 5 things to know in Bitcoin this week

Bitcoin is on the path to becoming a reserve asset

Beneath the volatility, a structural shift is underway. Companies are increasingly using Bitcoin and its ETFs to diversify their balance sheets.

According to Tipranks, 80.8% of BlackRock’s IBIT shares are owned by public companies and individual investors. Furthermore, in Feb. 2025, BlackRock incorporated a 1% to 2% allocation of IBIT into its target allocation portfolios, reflecting growing institutional adoption.

Data from BitcoinTreasuries shows that publicly listed companies currently hold 665,618 BTC, and private firms hold 424,130 BTC. Together, that’s 1,089,748 BTC—roughly 5.5% of the total supply (excluding lost coins). These figures underscore the growing acceptance of Bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset. What’s more, some experts predict that holding BTC in corporate treasury will become a standard practice by the end of the decade. 

Elliot Chun, a partner at the crypto-focused M&A firm Architect Partners, said in a March 28 blog post:

“I anticipate that by 2030, a quarter of the S&P 500 will have BTC somewhere on their balance sheets as a long-term asset.”

The character of any asset is defined by the attitude of those who own it. As more corporations adopt Bitcoin for treasury diversification—and as sovereign entities begin experimenting with Bitcoin reserves—the cryptocurrency’s profile is shifting. The US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, as imperfect as it is, contributes to this trend.

It’s too early to call Bitcoin a full-fledged hedge. Its price is still primarily driven by short-term speculation. But the transition is underway. As adoption grows across countries, companies, and individuals, Bitcoin’s volatility will likely decrease, and its utility as a partial hedge will increase.

For now, the safe haven label may be aspirational. But if current trends continue, it might not be for long.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

Bitcoin (BTC) ticked higher at the March 31 Wall Street open as traders stayed risk-averse on the short-term BTC price outlook.

BTC/USD 1-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Bitcoin RSI teases bearish continuation

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed local highs of $83,914 on Bitstamp, with BTC/USD up 1.5% on the day.

With hours to go until the quarterly candle close, Bitcoin saw some much-needed relief, even as US stocks opened lower.

Market momentum remained tied to upcoming US trade tariffs set to go live on April 2, with gold also slipping after touching fresh all-time highs of $3,128 per ounce.

XAU/USD 1-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Commenting on BTC price action, many market participants nonetheless favored caution.

“Retesting our 84k area of interest,” popular trader Roman wrote in his latest X analysis of the 4-hour BTC/USD chart. 

Roman referenced the relative strength index (RSI) while forecasting a return to levels closer to the $80,000 mark.

“To me it looks like we should begin to head lower as we have a break down and bearish retest on LTF,” he continued. 

“RSI also retesting the 50 area with stoch overbought. HTF still leans bearish as well.”

BTC/USD 4-hour chart with RSI data. Source: Roman/X

Popular trader and analyst Rekt Capital went further on RSI signals, revealing a support retest on daily timeframes after a key breakout from a multimonth downtrend.

“The $BTC RSI is trying to retest its Downtrend as support. Meanwhile BTC’s price action is also facing a Downtrend,” he summarized to X followers.

“If the RSI successfully retests its Downtrend… That would display emerging strength & price would be able to break its own Downtrend.”

BTC/USD 1-day chart with RSI data. Source: Rekt Capital/X

Earlier, Cointelegraph reported on various BTC price metrics combining to produce a lackluster picture of the current phase of the bull market, hinting that the correction would continue.

BTC price targets, meanwhile, now extend to $65,000, with prediction platforms seeing even lower.

BTC price analysis draws comparisons to late 2024

Both March and Q1 performance thus left much to be desired.

Related: Worst Q1 for BTC price since 2018: 5 things to know in Bitcoin this week

Amid a broad lack of upside catalysts, BTC/USD traded down 10.8% year-to-date at the time of writing and 1.1% lower for March, per data from monitoring resource CoinGlass.

BTC/USD monthly returns (screenshot). Source: CoinGlass

In its latest analytics report, “Bitfinex Alpha,” released on March 31, crypto exchange Bitfinex acknowledged that 2025 was Bitcoin’s worst first quarter in years.

“Any buying momentum is currently being capped at the $89,000 level—coinciding with the previous range lows seen in December 2024, and acting as a firm resistance level to further gains,” contributors observed. 

“This resistance is also coinciding with further downside in equities, with the S&P 500 closing the week 1.5 percent lower.”

BTC/USD 1-week chart (screenshot). Source: Bitfinex

The report highlighted the growing correlation between Bitcoin and US stocks.

“Despite the turbulence, price action in recent weeks appears to have carved out a consolidation range between $78,000 and $88,000. Notably, signs of capitulation are easing, with fewer reactive sellers present and long-term holders beginning to accumulate once more,” it added.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.