RWA

Ondo Finance said on May 26 that founder and CEO Nathan Allman died unexpectedly, and appointed Ian De Bode as chief executive effective immediately. After the update, ONDO fell 4.47% to about $0.42 over 24 hours, while the protocol reported roughly $3.79 billion in TVL across 12 chains.

On May 26, 2026, the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority published a joint consultation setting out a shared approach to tokenized wholesale financial markets in the UK. The Call for Input seeks views on tokenized assets, DLT-based settlement and collateral processes, and prudential treatment, as regulators also reiterated plans linked to a 2028 synchronization service and a pilot tokenized gilt (DIGIT).

At the 2026 Goldman Sachs Asia Pacific FinTech Conference, Bybit co-founder and CEO Ben Zhou said tokenization could move traditional assets onto blockchain faster than markets anticipate, citing atomic settlement and 24/7 trading as key drivers. He pointed to a tokenized Treasury market that has exceeded $2Bn and referenced projects across Asia-Pacific and Europe, framing Bybit as infrastructure for bridging banking access and on-chain liquidity.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has reportedly delayed publishing a proposal that would let platforms trade tokenized stocks under an "innovation exemption". The plan would require token platforms to ensure investors receive traditional shareholder rights such as dividends and voting, but market participants raised implementation concerns, including unauthorized token issuance and ownership verification on blockchains.

On May 24, 2026, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission postponed releasing its proposed "innovation exemption" framework for tokenized securities amid investor-protection concerns. The plan was expected to create a limited, SEC-supervised sandbox for blockchain-based trading, but questions around third-party tokens and whether they preserve dividends, voting rights, and other shareholder protections contributed to the slowdown.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said on May 24 that global finance still needs eight core upgrades, spanning tokenization, 24/7 global trading, stablecoins, AI, regulation, access, capital formation, and sound money. He argued that achieving these goals will require continued technical development alongside policy changes to broaden participation and update market infrastructure.

Centrifuge (CFG) rose more than 11% over the past 24 hours even as the SEC delayed approvals for tokenized stock trading. Daily trading volume fell 36% to about $25 million, while on-chain metrics showed holder counts rising faster than asset and stablecoin value growth. Technical levels highlighted $0.30 as a key weekly close area, with $0.35 in focus if bulls regain the $0.30-$0.32 range.

Solana logged record network usage in Q1 2026 even as SOL fell 33% to close around $83. Messari reported average daily non-vote transactions hit 112.6 million and application revenue stayed near-flat at $342.2 million. The quarter also saw RWAs rise 43% to $2.01 billion, while DeFi TVL dropped 22% to $6.16 billion alongside the token's price decline.

Michael Burry said this week that the U.S. could drift toward a “Snow Crash cyber-punk future” as the SEC prepares rules that may allow crypto platforms to trade tokenized versions of U.S. stocks. He published the warning in a May 19 post on his Substack “Cassandra Unchained,” and later added that regulators should avoid “opening scary doors.” The SEC proposal was reported May 18 and was later paused on May 22, 2026.

The tokenized asset market has climbed to $34.01 billion, with tokenized U.S. Treasury products emerging as the largest segment and approaching $16 billion by May 2026. The market was below $3 billion around mid-2024, indicating more than a tenfold expansion over the period. Commodities neared $6 billion and asset-backed credit topped $3 billion as broader institutional use of onchain settlement systems increased.