RWAs have grown rapidly, and today the value of these assets totals ~$40B.
These assets fall into two main categories: permissionless and permissioned, with almost equal market capitalisation.
However, they are treated quite differently onchain.
Permissionless assets can be traded on any DEX, with multiple DeFi use cases to earn extra yield.
However, permissioned assets have fairly limited spot trading due to asset-level constraints. They restrict who can hold or transfer these assets. So, holders can only exit through issuer redemption, which can take days or weeks.
@theorem_markets, now live on Ethereum mainnet, is building a trading venue specifically for these assets and features:
✦ Eligibility checks enforced onchain, so permissioned assets can have pools.
✦ Pricing shown against the latest NAV, so traders can evaluate any premiums or discounts.
✦ Limit orders, so you can bid below NAV or offer above it.
✦ Routing between AMM pools and market-maker quotes for the best
execution.
✦ Trading pauses when NAV goes stale, the issuer halts, or market hours close.
This way, tokenised assets can trade in secondary markets while preserving the controls their issuers require.
Additionally, it offers advantages beyond spot trading by helping these assets enter the broader DeFi ecosystem, including lending, collateralised borrowing, and leveraged strategies.
Today, permissioned assets represent only ~18% of the DeFi TVL of RWAs ($1.08B), despite having a market cap similar to permissionless assets, largely because of a lack of onchain spot liquidity and instant redemption paths.