What a tokenised real-world asset is
A tokenised real-world asset, or RWA, is a token on a public blockchain that represents a claim on something held off-chain: a Treasury bill in a fund's brokerage account, a gold bar in a vault, a share with a broker-dealer, a portfolio of loans. The chain records who holds the token. The asset itself is held by an issuer or a custodian under a legal agreement. That split is the whole subject. Bitcoin is the asset; an RWA token is a receipt for an asset that lives elsewhere, worth only what the issuer will honour.
The main classes
| Class | Examples | What backs it | Who can hold |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tokenised Treasuries and money-market funds | Ondo OUSG and USDY, BlackRock BUIDL (via Securitize, launched March 2024) | Short-dated US government debt, repo, cash | Allowlisted, KYC'd wallets; OUSG and BUIDL for qualified investors, USDY for non-US persons |
| Gold | PAXG (Paxos), XAUT (Tether) | Allocated London Good Delivery bars in vaults | Anyone with a wallet; KYC only at redemption |
| Tokenised stocks | xStocks by Backed (Solana, June 2025), Robinhood stock tokens for EU users (announced June 2025), Ondo Global Markets (2025) | Shares or ETF units held by a custodian, or a derivative tracking them | Mostly non-US persons; rules differ per issuer |
| Private credit | On-chain lending pools funding loans to companies | Loan agreements and the borrower's collateral | Usually accredited, KYC'd lenders |
Treasuries are the largest and most restricted class; gold is the oldest and most open; private credit is the hardest to verify from outside.
What you actually hold
Four things decide what the token is worth to you; none of them shows in the balance.
- Issuer risk. Your claim is against a legal entity. If it fails, you are a creditor in its jurisdiction. Whether the assets sit in a bankruptcy-remote trust or special-purpose vehicle rather than on the issuer's own balance sheet is the first thing to read in the terms.
- Redemption terms. Minimum sizes, fees, settlement times and, almost always, an account with the issuer. PAXG moves between wallets freely, but turning it into a bar or into dollars at Paxos requires a verified Paxos account. The same applies to XAUT at Tether and to every Treasury token.
- Transfer restrictions. Some tokens carry an on-chain allowlist: a transfer to an address the issuer has not approved reverts. OUSG and BUIDL work this way. PAXG, XAUT and USDY are freely transferable, which is why they show up on DEXs and swap services and the allowlisted ones do not.
- Freeze powers. Practically every RWA token lets the issuer freeze or seize a balance. It is a legal requirement for a regulated issuer, and it applies to freely transferable tokens as much as to allowlisted ones.
The short version: the token trades freely or it does not, but redemption always goes through KYC. If you can never pass the issuer's verification, the secondary market is your only exit, and its liquidity is what the "backing" is really worth to you.
How RWA differ from stablecoins
A dollar stablecoin is technically an RWA too: a claim on cash and Treasury bills held by an issuer. The differences are in design. A stablecoin is pegged at par and pays no yield; the issuer keeps the interest. A Treasury token tracks a growing net asset value or accrues yield to the holder. That yield is exactly what makes regulators treat it as a security and forces issuers to allowlist holders, while stablecoins are treated as payment instruments and circulate freely. Gold tokens track a fluctuating price and pay nothing, which puts them closer to stablecoins in how freely they move. See stablecoins as the internet dollar for the payment side.
Why gold tokens are the most self-custody friendly RWA
- Gold is not a security in most jurisdictions, so there is no allowlist. Any Ethereum address can hold PAXG or XAUT.
- The backing is a physical, audited, allocated asset with a public reference price; you can compare the token's price with spot gold in seconds.
- Moving it costs ETH gas and nothing else; holders pay no custody fee.
- Both tokens have real liquidity on DEXs and swap services, so you can enter and exit without contacting the issuer.
What remains is the freeze function and issuer risk, so it matters who the issuer is: Paxos is a New York-regulated trust company; Tether Gold is issued by a Tether group entity with bars in Switzerland. The differences are in XAUT vs PAXG.
How to get exposure without an account
PAXG has its own coin page and a dedicated PAXG to BTC pair. To buy it, use the swap form on the homepage: choose a source such as USDT TRC-20 or BTC, PAXG as the destination, enter your Ethereum address, and click Swap now. You get a unique deposit address and a status page, no login. Send exactly the shown amount; PAXG arrives at your address.
To sell, open the PAXG to BTC pair, enter the amount and your Bitcoin address, and send the PAXG. The floating rate locks when the deposit reaches the required confirmations, which for PAXG is 100 Ethereum blocks, roughly twenty minutes.
XAUT, ONDO and PLUME are also available in the swap form as source or destination. Be precise about what they are: XAUT is a gold token like PAXG. ONDO is the governance token of Ondo Finance, not a claim on Treasuries; holding it gives you no exposure to OUSG or USDY. PLUME is the gas token of an RWA-focused chain, not an RWA. The Treasury tokens themselves are not in the swap form and, given their allowlists, could not be delivered to an arbitrary address anyway.
The cost is the deposit's network fee plus the spread and payout fee built into the quote.
Mistakes to avoid
- Confusing the governance token with the product. ONDO is not OUSG. Buying an issuer's token is buying the issuer, not the asset.
- Sending an allowlisted token to an ordinary wallet. The transfer reverts, or the token lands somewhere it can never leave.
- Treating "backed" as "redeemable by me". Read the minimum size and the eligibility rules before you buy a size you cannot redeem.
PAXG (ERC-20) → BTC
BTC → USDT (TRC-20)