A report just published by Kadena provides some takeaways regarding the future of real-world asset (RWA) tokenization and the emergence of compliance-oriented token standards. With regulatory standards setting out an absolute that capital would have to abide by as institutional action to tokenize RWA continues to gather pace, regulatory trends are becoming a deciding variable to how this capital connects with blockchain infrastructure. Kadena research indicates that the tide might be turning toward the abandonment of legacy standards on the one hand and an increasing institutional interest in purpose-built tokens, like ERC-3643, on the other.
As per the study, the permissioned tokens such as the ERC-3643 are fast gaining relevance as a way of fulfilling the compliance gaps associated with impeding the traditional standards. Kadena notes that popular tokens such as ERC-20 and ERC-721 were already introduced to lay the foundations of thus digital assets; however, these tokens do not satisfy the security requirements of institutional investors in search of regulated exposure to tokenized assets.
An estimated range of the total value locked (TVL) in RWA tokenization projects projects is put at a range of $12.4 billion to 25 billion in July 2025. To this end, the ERC-3643 is quickly becoming the default regulated token standard supported by more than 32 billion dollars of tokenized value. Some of its capabilities that make them useful in its adoption include identity-aware issuance, transfer restrictions, and programmable compliance layers that would ease the incorporation of regulatory requirements at a smart contract level.
“The RWA space has moved way beyond speculation. We’re seeing real institutional adoption with over $32 billion in tokenized assets already using ERC-3643. The infrastructure bottleneck isn’t institutional interest, it’s compliance. You need KYC/AML verification, investor accreditation, and jurisdiction restrictions built directly into the token contracts. That’s why standards like ERC-3643 are winning… they solve the compliance problem at the protocol level instead of trying to bolt it on afterward. Without that foundational infrastructure, you’re just building another speculative market instead of upgrading capital markets,” said Kadena founder Stuart Popejoy.
Another reason cited in the report by Kadena is counterfeit compliance-first token standards that have started to develop on other blockchains. More interestingly, Kadena has gone on to create its own RWA specific standard based on its Pact smart contract language. It is a standard that copies compliance-centric functionality of ERC-3643 but is made to maximize performance and security through Kadana scalable, parallel-chain design.
With a grant-based program worth $25 million focused on tokenization the Kadena is trying to actively facilitate the growth of RWA infrastructure. One of its first investors is the CurveBlock, a UK-based investment fund that deals with investing in zero-carbon developments in the real estate sector. By following the traditional Kadena token standard, CurveBlock will automate and automate the process of investor onboarding, compliance-based controls, and enhance access to the best possibilities of sustainable real estate investment.
Along with Ethereum and Kadena, the report also looks at RWA tokenization efforts on other block chains, including Stellar and Algorand. Stellar is fast and relatively low-cost settlement with asset settings that can be customized, whereas Algorand has permission controls that meet the institutional grade and automates smart contracts. The two platforms, as Kadena observes, demonstrate how wide-ranging technical frameworks are emerging to facilitate compliant tokenization.
However, the report stresses out that it is important to actually incorporate compliance. Among the existing challenges, Kadena suggests the following: the interoperability of different chains, the dynamically changing regulatory environment, and the legal enforcement of tokenized securities are still solved challenges that the sector needs to address as a united front. More jurisdictional compatibility of the regulations and smooth legal treatment of the on-chain representations are the imperative factors in the global scale-up of RWAs.
At the same time, Kadena has a bullish vision of the future of the tokenized asset market, thus predicting the size of the market to be between 2 trillion and 11 trillion by 2030. The report highlights that this growth is based on such strong standards as ERC-3643, which can solve compliance at scale and win the trust of institutions.
The extended version of the research, the paper called Compliant Tokenization of Real-World Assets: Mapping the RWA Token Standard Landscape, can be found on the web-site of Kadena.
About Kadena
Kadena is a high-performance, artistic-grade Layer1 blockchain developed by blockchain veterans Stuart Popejoy and Will Martino in 2016. Kadena uses its proprietary chain-web parallel-chain system together with support of Solidity and Pact smart contracts. A low-cost network, innate security, and cross-chain abilities, Kadena allows introducing a DeFi protocol, a tokenization project, and AI-based solutions using a decentralized, scalable platform.
While other blockchains claim to enable low-latency scalable applications, Kadena nurtures an ecosystem of grant-backed builders and developer tools and infrastructure partnerships, making it a major force in high-throughput compliant blockchain use cases.
