Real-World Asset Tokens Shine Amid Crypto Downturn as 1inch-Ondo Partnership Surpasses $2.5B
The 1inch-Ondo collaboration has generated over $2.5 billion in trading volume for tokenized stocks and ETFs, establishing real-world assets as a key growth driver while the broader cryptocurrency market struggles.
Since the collaborative partnership between 1inch and Ondo launched in September 2025, trading volumes for tokenized exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and stocks flowing through their integration have surpassed the $2.5 billion threshold.
Based on information released to Cointelegraph and data available on Dune Analytics, real-world assets (RWAs) have emerged as the volume category experiencing the most rapid expansion on 1inch. Although they continue to represent a smaller portion of total transaction flow, 1inch co-founder Sergei Kunz informed Cointelegraph that "the direction of travel is clear," and the momentum remains strong even as the wider cryptocurrency market experiences a downturn.
The majority of this trading activity is concentrated on BNB Chain, which has witnessed approximately $2 billion in associated volume across more than 1.3 million individual transactions, with active users reaching a peak of nearly 24,800 during a single measurement period.
According to Kunz, BNB Chain has become "the natural place for RWA activity to occur" thanks to the pairing of a seamless user experience with extensive retail distribution capabilities, noting that activity was "happening faster and more retail-sized than on Ethereum."
Kunz further explained that RWA trading was attracting both sophisticated and everyday retail participants, with the average swap transaction valued at approximately $1,400, which he characterized as evidence of "real capital, deployed with intent" as opposed to mere experimental transactions.
Tokenized RWAs defy slump as Ethereum nears $15 billion
This achievement arrives at a time when tokenized RWAs are proving to be among the limited number of reliable growth narratives within the cryptocurrency sector. The total value locked (TVL) in RWAs on Ethereum has reached almost $15 billion, representing an increase of approximately 200% throughout the previous year.
A significant portion of this expansion has been fueled by tokenized US Treasuries, whose market capitalization has grown by more than $1 billion since early 2026, marking a roughly 50x multiplication since 2024, as offerings such as BlackRock's BUIDL fund facilitate the migration of traditional fixed income instruments onto blockchain networks.
Simultaneously, both tokenized RWAs and the supporting infrastructure have maintained their appeal to new investment capital. Projects focused on RWA tokenization ranked among the largest recipients of crypto venture funding throughout 2025, while onchain RWA markets experienced growth of approximately 13.5% over a 30-day span during a timeframe when the broader crypto market suffered losses of around $1 trillion in total value.
RWAs to become everyday DeFi plumbing
The integration between 1inch and Ondo demonstrates the transformation of aggregators into distribution channels for regulated RWA issuers. Kunz emphasized that 1inch maintains its non-custodial nature and does not serve as an issuer of the RWAs themselves, explaining that eligibility requirements and jurisdictional oversight are managed at the issuer level, while 1inch concentrates on routing capabilities, application programming interfaces (APIs) and transparency disclosures.
Regarding future developments, Kunz anticipates RWAs will make "the next leap forward" only after achieving alignment in liquidity depth, industry standards and regulatory clarity, at which stage he predicts tokenized assets will operate as routine "financial plumbing on DeFi" infrastructure rather than remaining a specialized niche opportunity.