Tokenization Asset Management New Force: Superstate Rises with the Wind of RWA

Tokenization is becoming one of the few narratives in this round of the crypto cycle that has gained favor with Wall Street and recognition from regulatory agencies. In this wave of Real World Asset (RWA) tokenization, the tokenized asset management company Superstate, led by Compound founder Robert Leshner, has quietly grown into an important tokenization participant with a certain scale, attracting hundreds of millions of dollars in funding.

Three Tokenization Products Favored by the Market

The trend of physical assets being brought onto the blockchain is rapidly gaining momentum, with RWA evolving from the proof-of-concept stage to explosive growth in the scale of hundreds of billions of dollars, attracting numerous financial giants to get involved. In this wave, Superstate, which was established just over two years ago, has secured a place in the tokenization market.

Leshner's reputation in the crypto industry comes from the Compound he founded. In June 2020, Compound ignited the liquidity mining craze with its "lending is mining" mechanism, becoming a leading project in the DeFi space, with a total locked value (TVL) that once exceeded several billion dollars.

However, as the DeFi market continues to be sluggish, Leshner chose to leave Compound and turn to the more reality-based RWA track, founding Superstate. In the early stages of the company's establishment, it completed two rounds of financing backed by several well-known institutions, with a total amount reaching tens of millions of dollars.

Superstate has a clear positioning and is committed to developing on-chain financial products that can be accessed in compliance with the U.S. financial regulatory framework for institutional investors, linked to real assets. Currently, the company has launched three tokenization products covering three major areas: government bonds, crypto arbitrage, and stock assets.

In February 2024, Superstate launched its first on-chain fund product USTB. This is a short-term U.S. Treasury bond fund, registered with the SEC, and its ownership records are regulated by U.S. federal laws. At the same time, its ownership records exist in the form of tokens on Ethereum, with net asset value (NAV) synchronized daily through smart contracts, supporting users for on-chain subscription, redemption, and trading settlement.

USTB is primarily aimed at qualified institutional investors in the United States, supporting subscriptions and redemptions in USD or USDC, and circulating on Ethereum, Solana, and Plume Network. Compared to traditional zero-yield stablecoins, USTB provides actual interest returns on on-chain funds while retaining the on-chain liquidity of the assets.

This design makes USTB a foundational yield asset for many DeFi protocols. As of August 6, the asset management scale of USTB has approached $420 million, with a 7-day yield of 4.04%, performing excellently among tokenized U.S. Treasury bond funds.

In July 2024, Superstate launched its second investment product, the Superstate Crypto Carry Fund (USCC). This is an on-chain crypto arbitrage fund aimed at qualified purchasers, with a core strategy based on the "cash and carry" mechanism from traditional finance. USCC primarily focuses on the positive basis in the Bitcoin and Ethereum futures markets by buying spot assets while simultaneously selling futures contracts of the corresponding duration to lock in the spread profits. Additionally, USCC integrates Ethereum staking and short-term U.S. Treasury bonds to enhance overall capital efficiency and improve the portfolio's resilience to volatility.

As of now, the asset management scale of USCC has exceeded $220 million, with an annualized return rate of approximately 16.17%, far exceeding the industry average level of traditional arbitrage products.

Layout tokenization of stocks to promote the compliance process

In May of this year, Superstate further expanded its product line and laid out a strategy for tokenization of stocks by launching the Opening Bell platform. This platform supports the direct issuance and trading of publicly registered stocks on the blockchain network, starting with Solana and gradually expanding to more on-chain ecosystems.

To promote the adoption of tokenization in the financial markets, Superstate has also launched the Sector Industry Committee (SIC), attracting over fifty members from traditional and crypto sectors.

Leshner saw the trend of DeFi integrating with traditional finance as early as the Compound era. He believes that tokenization will become the core trend in future financial markets, bringing various assets onto the blockchain to achieve a more efficient, transparent, and compliant market structure.

Superstate always prioritizes compliance as a core strategy. This year, the company registered as a transfer agent with the US SEC and actively promoted breakthroughs in tokenization policy and the construction of industry standards. For example, Superstate partnered with a lobbying organization to submit a proposal called Project Open, advocating for the issuance and trading of securities on public blockchains.

It is worth mentioning that Leshner himself is also actively involved in the currently popular coin-stock play, such as exchanging NFTs for preferred shares of a certain company, as well as acquiring more than half of a certain liquor company's shares and attempting to establish a crypto treasury plan.