BNB Chain and XRP Ledger (XRPL) have positioned themselves as frontrunners in the Real World Asset (RWA) sector. Both reported substantial increases in RWA value, leading growth in August. 

However, this growth comes amid a broader sector decline, with RWAs still trailing behind other blockchain sectors.

BNB Chain and XRPL Lead RWA Growth Amid Broader Sector Decline

According to data from RWA.xyz, over the past 30 days, the value of RWAs on the BNB Chain has surged 1,540%, making it the highest gainer. Following the network was the XRPL, which has seen a 52.2% rise.

In contrast, the top protocols by value, including Ethereum, Aptos, Solana, Stellar, and others, have all lost value in the same time frame.

BNB Chain now holds 0.33% of the market share. Furthermore, the primary catalyst for its growth is the VanEck Treasury Fund (VBILL). 

VBILL is VanEck’s first tokenized fund. It is available on multiple blockchains, including BNB Chain, Avalanche, Ethereum, and Solana. It offers on-chain access to short-term US Treasury bills. 

Similarly, XRPL’s RWA growth was led by the OpenEden TBILL Vault.

“@OpenEden_X offers a smart contract vault managed by a regulated entity, providing 24/7 access to US Treasury Bills (T-Bills) through the OpenEden TBILL Vault.  This on-chain liquid pool allows stablecoin holders to earn sustainable yields by investing in T-Bills, which are backed 1:1 by T-Bills, USD Coin (USDC), and US dollar reserves,” an analyst explained. 

Meanwhile, Phil Kwok, co-founder of EasyA, also attributed the growth to Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin. BeInCrypto reported previously that the stablecoin has been one of the fastest-growing assets in the market.

“Very impressive growth of the XRP ledger. Fastest increase in real world assets compared to any other blockchain,” Kwok posted.

It is worth noting that XRPL has made notable strides in tokenization recently. Previously, Ripple teamed up with Ctrl Alt to support the Dubai Land Department’s Real Estate Tokenization Project on the XRPL. Moreover, in June, Circle’s USDC stablecoin went live on the network.

Notably, Ripple itself is quite optimistic about the entire sector’s growth. In a report, the firm predicted that the real-world assets sector could go as high as $18.9 trillion by 2033.

However, not everyone shares this positive view. Recently, financial giant JP Morgan stated that the overall market for tokenized assets remains ‘rather insignificant.’ 

“This rather disappointing picture on tokenization reflects traditional investors not seeing a need for it thus far. There is also little evidence so far of banks or customers moving from traditional bank deposits to tokenized bank deposits on blockchains,” Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, a JPMorgan strategist, wrote.

Furthermore, the sector is primarily dominated by crypto-native firms, with a total market capitalization of around $25.7 billion. In fact, its growth has been relatively slow. 

Data from Artemis revealed that RWAs grew by only 14.8% in the past month. This figure is quite underwhelming, especially when compared to the massive growth seen in non-fungible tokens (NFTs), Ethereum, decentralized finance (DeFi), and other sectors.