How RWAs Can Break Into DeFi: GENIUS Act Signals Path Forward

- Regulatory barriers prevent RWAs from tapping into DeFi liquidity. - Infrastructure must evolve for compliance and composability. On July 13, 2025, Cointelegraph published an opinion piece by Jakob Kronbichler, co-founder and CEO of Clearpool and Ozean, highlighting the structural challenges in integrating Real-World Assets (RWAs) into decentralized finance (DeFi). Kronbichler argued that RWAs often fail to deliver on tokenization's promises because of isolated designs, compliance challenges, and a lack of interoperability. To address these issues, he emphasized the need to build compliant and composable infrastructure within DeFi ecosystems. Kronbichler identified that tokenization projects for assets like U.S. Treasurys are steadily gaining interest among institutional investors. However, he noted that many of these initiatives simply "park" capital, leaving it underutilized, as these projects lack the liquidity and interoperability that underpin DeFi’s strength as a financial infrastructure. As a model for success, Kronbichler pointed to stablecoins, suggesting that RWAs must shift to solve larger infrastructure problems. Stablecoins act as foundational programmable money and have achieved widespread adoption because they enable other applications to build upon them. For instance, market data from 16:14 UTC on July 13 showed Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC) both trading at $1, with 24-hour trading volume changes of 0.021% and 0.001%, respectively. Kronbichler proposed that a similar approach—creating compliant and composable infrastructure—could help unlock the full potential of RWAs. According to Kronbichler, legal and regulatory compliance remains a significant barrier to broader adoption. Classifying tokenized assets as securities often restricts their use in DeFi protocols and creates fragmented liquidity pools. In this context, he views the United States Senate’s passage of the GENIUS Act as a positive step, believing the act will help establish a federal framework to regulate digital assets and may alleviate compliance bottlenecks. Kronbichler argued that to accelerate the institutional adoption of RWAs, the supporting infrastructure must become more efficient, cost-effective, or compliant than traditional financial systems. He also stressed that DeFi protocols themselves must adapt to accommodate assets bound by real-world constraints. Finally, Kronbichler warned that institutions that fail to develop tokenization strategies risk losing their competitive advantage in the emerging tokenized economy. Without a robust strategy, he noted, businesses may have to rely on infrastructure controlled by third parties, a reliance that could limit their ability to operate effectively within on-chain ecosystems.