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realworld

Nasdaq files with SEC to enable trading of tokenized securities
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Figure’s $7.6b IPO debut shows appetite for real-world blockchain firms

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Figure Technologies, a blockchain-based consumer lending platform, had a strong NASDAQ debut.

Summary

  • Figure Technologies IPO’d on NASDAQ, valuing the company at $7.62 billion
  • The company raised $787.5 million from investors, with the offer price at $25
  • Stock started public trading at $44 per share, later stabilizing at $31

Wall Street is showing a strong appetite for blockchain stocks. On Thursday, September 11, blockchain-based consumer lending firm Figure Technologies had a strong start on the Nasdaq. The company sold 31.5 million shares in its initial public offering, raising $787.5 million from investors.

Shares started public trading at $44, significantly higher than the $25 offering price, valuing the firm at $7.62 billion. Although the shares later stabilized at $31, the strong opening indicates significant interest in companies that leverage blockchain to solve real-world problems.

The company’s co-founder, Mike Cagney, stated that Figure is just one example of how blockchain can transform entire industries. He explains that the technology has the potential to lower costs by cutting the need for trusted intermediaries.

So if you think of something like the stock market, it’s an easy example. Seven parties sit in between buyers and sellers of every transaction. Blockchain has the ability to distill that down just to two, Mike Cagney, Figure.

Figure promises to transform home equity loans

Unlike some other crypto-related investments, Figure is not a speculative project. Instead, it is a business that solves a real problem in consumer lending. Notably, home equity loans are typically slow and costly to approve.

Figure claims that it can originate home equity loans in 5 to 10 days, compared to the U.S. average of 42 days. The firm uses blockchain to track key credit data, including credit scores, home equity, and property valuations, and to keep this information transparent. Still, using technology to solve a problem that usually requires trained professionals raises questions, and Figure still has to prove its track record in the long run.



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Dubai is leading the real-world asset revolution
GameFi Guides

Dubai is leading the real-world asset revolution

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Disclosure: The views and opinions expressed here belong solely to the author and do not represent the views and opinions of crypto.news’ editorial.

Real-world assets entered the mainstream around 2020, though the idea traces back further. As the name suggests, RWAs are traditional or physical assets that have been tokenized and brought onto the blockchain. The foundation was first laid with Ethereum’s (ETH) introduction of smart contracts in 2015, and the sector has since accelerated rapidly, with some forecasts projecting that by 2030, more than $10 trillion worth of assets could be tokenized on-chain.

Summary

  • Why RWAs matter: Tokenization unlocks liquidity through fractional ownership, broadens access to global investors, and replaces costly intermediaries with transparent, efficient smart contracts.
  • Why Dubai leads: Backed by VARA’s clear framework and booming property market, Dubai turned tokenization into policy — with $399M already tokenized in May and projections of $16B by 2033.
  • Real traction: Platforms like Prypco Mint are selling out projects in minutes, including a $3B MAG deal, signaling tokenization’s shift from pilot projects to mainstream adoption.
  • Challenges ahead: Secondary-market liquidity, registry integration, and rising global competition remain hurdles, but Dubai’s regulatory clarity and momentum give it a strong edge.

Why are real-world assets important?

At a high level, RWAs bring many benefits to the market, although there are three key ones:

  1. Liquidity: Real estate and other illiquid assets typically demand large, single transactions, making buying and selling slow and cumbersome. Tokenization enables fractional ownership and 24/7 trading, transforming how these assets are exchanged.
  2. Access and inclusion: Tokenization lets anyone with a wallet invest, unlocking deep global liquidity and enabling participation at any transaction size previously impossible.
  3. Efficiency and transparency: many layers of expensive intermediaries and cumbersome transaction processes are exchanged for simple, clear contracts, lowering costs, reducing settlement times, and providing auditability.

Why is Dubai taking the lead?

The roots of real-world asset tokenization trace back to the United States, where early experiments sought to bring real estate onto the blockchain nearly a decade ago. One of the most notable examples was the tokenization of the St. Regis Aspen Resort in 2018, which raised $18 million through a security token offering. Similar pilots followed in markets like New York and Miami, but regulatory ambiguity in the U.S., particularly around whether such tokens qualified as securities, slowed momentum.

Dubai, on the other hand, backed by VARA’s forward-looking approach, has introduced a clear, dedicated legal framework with a new licensing category: Asset-Referenced Virtual Assets (ARVAs). This clarified requirements to ensure ARVAs are held to the same standards of trust as traditional finance, enabling both issuers and investors to operate within a strong framework.

The timing of this is ideal. Dubai’s property market is booming; May alone saw $18.2 billion in sales across 18,700 deals, up 44% year-on-year. Of that, $399 million (17.4%) was tokenized. The Dubai Land Department projects that tokenized real estate will reach $16 billion by 2033, supported by its Prypco Mint platform, where investments start from just 2,000 Emirate Dirhams ($545). With three projects already fully funded (the second one selling out in just 1 minute and 58 seconds) and a $3 billion MAG deal inked in May, tokenization has shifted from experimentation to a core pillar of Dubai’s real estate strategy.

Imminent challenges

That being said, Dubai still faces several hurdles if it wants to sustain momentum in real estate tokenisation. Most stem from the early-stage nature of the market:

  1. Secondary-market liquidity: Demand has been strong at the launch of projects, but long-term liquidity remains thin. Without active secondary trading, one of tokenisation’s main benefits — continuous, low-friction resale — falls flat, which could dampen appetite for new offerings.
  2. Fees and registry processes: Even if a property is tokenised, investors must still pay the Dubai Land Department’s standard transfer fee (typically 4%; some platforms like Prypco Mint have offered discounted rates of around 2%) and update official records. Blockchain transfers alone do not yet update legal titles, and DLD recognition is still required. Until full registry integration is in place, tokens mainly represent beneficial rights, not direct title.
  3. International competition: Other jurisdictions are moving quickly to establish frameworks for tokenised property. As these alternatives mature, Dubai’s early-mover advantage may narrow, though whether international supply meaningfully erodes its lead remains to be seen.

What comes next for Dubai?

Little stands in the way of Dubai’s tokenization drive today. A clear regulatory framework, full-stack market infrastructure, strong government backing, and global demand for high-yield property are fueling rapid growth. As long as new projects continue to launch, secondary market liquidity deepens, and international demand holds, Dubai’s lead in real estate tokenization should only strengthen.

James Murrell

James Murrell is a product and strategy professional at a leading crypto exchange. His experience includes over 6 years in operations, commercial strategy, and product management across a range of crypto and fintech startups. James started his blockchain journey in 2013, first entering the space in a professional capacity in 2018.



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2025 will make tokenized real-world assets mainstream
NFT Gaming

2025 will make tokenized real-world assets mainstream

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Disclosure: The views and opinions expressed here belong solely to the author and do not represent the views and opinions of crypto.news’ editorial.

Tokenization has floated around conference stages for a decade, but 2025 is the first year it feels unavoidable. The numbers explain why. On public chains alone, on-chain real-world assets now top over $25 billion, with tokenized U.S. Treasuries exceeding $6.6 billion and growing. This isn’t a pilot reel, but a market taking shape in plain view.

Summary

  • Tokenization is going mainstream, with BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, and major banks already running billions in funds on-chain, proving RWAs work at an institutional scale.
  • Europe’s MiCA, Hong Kong, Dubai, and now the U.S. (via the GENIUS Act) are laying down clear rulebooks that give treasurers and compliance teams confidence to move size.
  • Payments + RWAs converge — stablecoin rails are evolving into “PayFi,” where invoices, settlements, and tokenized T-bills flow together as programmable finance.
  • Asia and Europe lead the race, with mBridge, Project Agorá, and regional clarity; these hubs are shaping global standards while the U.S. plays catch-up.

Skeptics will argue that much of this liquidity sits in walled gardens or money-market wrappers. Fair. But that critique misses the point: institutional balance sheets are already migrating to blockchain rails in forms regulators understand and portfolio managers can model. Franklin Templeton’s on-chain funds (like FOBXX) and BlackRock’s BUIDL have shown that blue-chip managers can run real assets on programmable ledgers without breaking fiduciary discipline. When issuance, transfer, and servicing live natively on-chain, the friction drains out of everything from fund admin to collateral mobility. And this shift is no longer limited to institutions. Retail users are beginning to see tokenized Treasuries and ETFs appear in everyday apps like wallets and exchanges, where they can be accessed alongside stablecoins and swaps.

Regulation is finally getting boring (in the best way)

Rules (not slogans) decide whether RWAs scale. Europe’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation regime is now live in phases, with stablecoin rules effective from mid-2024 and broader licensing rolling through 2025 and beyond. “Boring” disclosure, capital, and conduct standards are exactly what treasurers and compliance teams need to move size. Hong Kong has published tokenization guidance for intermediaries and fund managers, taking a “see-through” approach that treats a tokenized wrapper as the thing it has always been: a security. Dubai’s VARA has refreshed its 2025 rulebooks, including a detailed Virtual Asset Issuance Rulebook — more scaffolding for real capital formation.

The United States, long allergic to comprehensive clarity, has blinked. July’s GENIUS Act finally sets a federal framework for payment stablecoins. That narrows uncertainty on the very rails most tokenized instruments will traverse — even if full implementation will take time and rulemaking. If Europe supplied the handbook, 2025’s America supplied a signal: stablecoin plumbing is now a core financial infrastructure.

Institutions don’t chase narratives — they chase yield and certainty

The past year quietly answered the question of who shows up for tokenized assets. Custodians, fund managers, and global banks are moving first — not for ideology, but for operational and funding advantages. BlackRock’s BUIDL gathered billions within months; Franklin Templeton has tokenized funds across jurisdictions; and pipelines between money-market tokens and traditional platforms are being built by household names like BNY Mellon and Goldman Sachs. When LiquidityDirect plugs into a tokenized subscription/redemption flow, you’re not debating “crypto” — you’re shortening a cash cycle.

Cross-border settlement is the next domino. BIS-backed Project Agorá brings seven major central banks and dozens of global institutions into a shared exploration of tokenized deposits and wholesale central bank money. On the other side of the world, mBridge has reached a minimum viable product stage and has already processed real-value transactions among participating jurisdictions.

These are not thought experiments; they are rewiring projects aimed at compressing multi-day correspondent flows into seconds, with atomic settlement baked in.

Payments become the on-ramp

If 2020–2022 was DeFi making capital work, 2025 is payments turning into capital. Call it PayFi — the fusion of real-time payments on stablecoin rails with financing that activates the time value of money the moment funds move. The term is still settling, but the direction is clear enough: payables and receivables become programmable collateral; settlement becomes a trigger for automated credit. The organizations’ writing definitions range from industry glossaries to protocol builders and payment foundations, which is precisely how new financial categories emerge.

Why does this matter for RWAs? Because tokenized treasuries, credit exposures, and fund shares become usable the instant they travel the same rails as payments. When a corporation can settle an invoice in a whitelisted stablecoin and sweep residuals into tokenized T-bill exposure without leaving the ledger, the boundary between treasury ops and portfolio construction blurs. That’s not crypto eating finance. It’s finance becoming software, with RWAs as first-class citizens of the transaction layer. For users, this convergence is already taking shape. Bitget Wallet, for instance, has joined the Global Markets Alliance alongside Ondo Finance to prepare for a future where stablecoin payments and tokenized assets flow together.

Asia and Europe will set the pace (for now)

The U.S. has finally moved on to stablecoins, but adoption may accelerate first in Asia, Europe, and the Gulf. Hong Kong has been explicit about tokenized products and intermediary conduct since late 2023. The UAE’s VARA has leaned into rules that give issuers and service providers a path to operate. Singapore’s Project Guardian has become the industry’s sandbox for asset-management tokenization and, more recently, tokenized bank liabilities for FX and transaction banking. Europe’s MiCA gives large financial institutions a continental compliance template. These are favorable conditions for mainstreaming RWAs — not in isolation, but as parts of regulated financial markets.

Meanwhile, wholesale payment experiments are bifurcating. mBridge — with China, Hong Kong, Thailand, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia in the mix — is further along in live pilots, while Agorá aligns Western central banks and the U.S. dollar sphere around a tokenized “unified ledger.” The competitive tension is healthy; the likely outcome is interoperability standards that make tokenized assets and payments speak common languages across blocs. Either path reduces settlement latency and unlocks the same tailwind for RWAs: better collateral mobility, lower counterparty risk, and fewer operational bottlenecks.

What “mainstream” will actually look like in 2025

Mainstream won’t be a press release; it’ll be a feeling. It’s a portfolio manager treating tokenized T-bills as normal cash equivalents and moving them intraday between venues. It’s a corporate treasury settling a supplier payment and auto-sweeping residuals into on-chain funds by day’s end. It’s a regional bank using tokenized deposits to reduce cross-border fails and daylight overdrafts.

And yes, it’s a saver in Lagos or Ho Chi Minh City holding regulated dollar stability on a phone while earning a compliant yield. In each case, the user isn’t “in crypto.” They’re using modern financial plumbing.

The convergence is the story. DeFi gave us programmable money; TradFi brings governance, scale, and risk discipline. With MiCA-style regimes maturing, U.S. stablecoin law on the books, and central banks testing tokenized settlement layers, the path for RWAs in 2025 is pragmatic and partnership-driven. When investors can buy a sliver of a skyscraper or settle a cross-border trade in tokenized form as easily as sending an email, it won’t feel radical — it will feel overdue.

That’s what “mainstream” means. And that’s why 2025, not some hazy future, is the year it happens.

Jamie Elkaleh

Jamie Elkaleh is the chief marketing officer at Bitget Wallet, one of the world’s leading non-custodial crypto wallets. He played a key leadership role in the company’s 2025 rebrand and global expansion strategy, helping scale the platform to over 80 million users across over 130 blockchains. With a background in performance analytics from professional sports and a track record in crypto education, Elkaleh brings a strategic, user-first approach to brand, growth, and adoption. He is also the founder of two on-chain learning platforms and a member of the Forbes Council, where he advocates for inclusive innovation and blockchain accessibility.



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"History is repeating itself" The real-world inspirations of Hell is Us are as relevant today as they were 30 years ago
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“History is repeating itself” The real-world inspirations of Hell is Us are as relevant today as they were 30 years ago

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“The true horrors of war are a very important narrative pillar of the game. We wanted to do it justice. It’s never done gratuitously, it’s never done in a grotesque way, [but] we want to depict human conflicts as realistically as possible.”

I am speaking with technical designer Simon Girard about Hell is Us, the upcoming action-adventure game from Rogue Factor. In Hell is Us, players take on the role of Rémi, who is searching for his parents in the fictional country of Hadea. However, Hadea is being ravaged by infighting and in the midst of a civil war.

This set up immediately brings to mind the current situation in Gaza, and the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people, which begs the question: Did real world events inspire Hell is Us?

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“Our creative director Jonathan Jacques-Belletête is a huge history buff, and one of his topics of interest is armed conflict, specifically civil wars, because the nature is of neighbours-against-neighbours,” Girard says of the general civil war theme. “It’s not one country against another. It’s people who are the same, right? They’re divided amongst either geographical or cultural or religious lines, but they’re one in the same.”

So while Hadea is a fictional country and Hell is Us is telling a fictional story, Girard says this has been a topic Jacques-Belletête had been wanting to explore for some time now, and inspiration was taken from 90s wars, which is shown in the clothing. “But, in terms of answering your question, the two main themes we explore with war are the human emotions that are causing this conflict, because the exacerbation of certain emotions can lead to conflict, and the cyclical nature of violence,” Girard continues. This cyclical nature is central to Hell is Us’ overall narrative, and Girard says it is “uncanny” that 30 years later, we are once again living in a world where a civil war is at the centre of many news stories on a daily basis.

“History is repeating itself, and I think without us taking a moralising approach – that’s not what we are about – there is something that resounds with a lot of people because yes [Hell is Us] is far away, is fictional, but at the same time, it has a powerful echo in it.” He reflects on the announcement trailer for Hell is Us, which showed a female civilian executing a soldier kneeling down in front of her, saying his people killed her family. That trailer happened to come out around the time of 2022’s Crimea attacks.

“We find a big echo in our own reality.”

“The studio wanted to create this fictional story. It had no basis in modern history, had no pretence in being a mirror-like reality. It’s a fictional story in a fictional country. But then this happens, right? So, again, we find a big echo in our own reality,” Girard says. He notes Hell is Us has over 160 NPCs, and all of them have been impacted by the war going on around them, be they victims, bystanders or participants.

“No one is left indifferent,” he says.

Image credit: Rogue Factor

More generally, Hell is Us has “three different narrative layers”, Girard tells me. The first is Rémi’s own story and his motivations. The second is of the civil war going on in Hadea, and the third is of The Calamity, which resulted in the appearance of supernatural creatures that also inhabit the land (see image below).

“They’re all intertwined somehow, and all these layers are very important to the story, or the multiple stories that you’ll get out of this experience,” Girard says, without giving too much away for fear of spoiling something. He adds, however, there are “strong narrative and mechanical links and implications” between everything that has been teased so far, but it is up to the player to find out just what they are.

“It’s a very rich environment for us to play with and tell stories with.”

“It’s a type of game I am sure will have subreddits of people trying to [piece together] the same things,” the developer says, talking about the many different items and “information elements” players will be able to find scattered throughout Hell is Us, and which will help shape the world’s narrative. “I am sure people will go very meta outside of the game and try to draw links between some stuff, and reorder things historically or phonologically,” he says, likening it to Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings adaptations. “You see this three hour long movie, and it’s a full set piece from beginning to end. But, it’s based on material that’s much larger, right? There’s this whole world behind it.”

The team has built Hell is Us’ world from scratch, Girard continues, and that includes weaving in a fictional history dating back hundreds of years. This means players will be able to find out why Hadea became a hermit kingdom, and discover more about the ruins that lie among more modern settlements. “It’s a very rich environment for us to play with and tell stories with,” Girard says.

Image credit: Rogue Factor

But while Hell is Us will include plenty of lore to untangle, the developer isn’t including what some would say are video game staples – a map and quest markers. The team has instead focused on environmental cues to guide players to where they should go, and a compass to allow them to orient themselves.

“It transpires in the level design, it transpires in the environmental design.”

Girard tells me about a settlement players will come across early on in Hell is Us. At one entrance, they may come across a military captain, who mentions an outpost in the town. “But let’s say you enter the town another way, and you miss the captain, the first thing you can find is either the blacksmith shop [which is illuminated], or there are other characters you can talk to who will also have threads you can fold in that will bring you into what you need to do for your main quest,” he explains. “It’s important to give multiple entry points into the main storyline at all times… and you may even stumble into story elements organically. Your exploration and time is always rewarded in different ways, ranging from the main story, secondary quest lines or just lore elements.”

The Hell is Us team decided early on that they weren’t going to include a traditional map, with this idea being a “design philosophy” for everything else. “It transpires in the level design, it transpires in the environmental design, it gives you different vistas in the background that also represent places that catch your eye from afar that you want to go to,” Girard elaborates. “In interior dungeons that can be very maze-like, we think ‘how can we make each room stand out so you can orient yourself’. So, the frescos [in these areas] are all unique, so you are never lost as a player.”

Hell is Us also features audio cues, which players can follow to help find their way through the world. An example of this happens early in the game, and those who have played the demo will recall it – the wind chimes in the woodland area. “If you’re playing on a 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound system, you could close your eyes and just navigate using the audio at that point,” Girard says. “It’s a small segment, but it’s such a nice touch.”

Image credit: Rogue Factor

My time with Girard is coming to an end, but it is clear the developer has so much more he wishes he could share. “It’s been a labour of love and passion from our team,” he says, catching sight of the time. “We began pre-production of this before the pandemic in 2020, so it’s five and a half years in the making. We began with 35 people, we are now 55. The studio has grown, we’ve built up pools and pipelines and ways of communicating and working together which are now defining what the future of Rogue Factor will be like for us, beyond everything commercial.”

“Don’t get me wrong, the more copies we sell the happier we are,” he closes with a laugh, “but beyond that, for us to be able to say this is Rogue Factor now, this is who we are and these are the types of experiences you can expect from us going forward, that was our main driving force… to find our own space and our own identity, where we can welcome people and have something interesting to present to them.”

Hell is Us – which stars Elias Toufexis, aka Adam Jensen from the Deus Ex series, as Rémi – is set to release next week, on 4th September.



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How One Roblox Creator Team Made Over $150k In Real-World Dollars With A Simple Red Bow
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How One Roblox Creator Team Made Over $150k In Real-World Dollars With A Simple Red Bow

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Philipp Batura didn’t expect one of his most successful designs to be a giant red bow. Simple and cartoonishly oversized, the Big Hair Bow became one of Roblox’s biggest fashion hits during Christmas, selling more than 455,000 copies and generating over $150,000 in revenue.

“What’s funny is that it’s such a simple design, but that’s probably why it worked,” Batura told GameSpot via email. “It appealed to a wide audience. I remember logging into games and seeing it on so many players, and I still spot it in YouTube and TikTok videos.”

It’s a story that illustrates how Roblox fashion works and why it’s so different from the real-world fashion industry. In Milan or Paris, designers might obsess over silhouettes or fabric innovation. In Roblox, the fashion ecosystem moves at the speed of memes, and sometimes the winning accessory isn’t high-concept at all; it’s a giant bow anyone can slap onto their avatar.

The Big Red Bow

Batura, who goes by Topcat in Roblox, didn’t enter the User Generated Content Creator program expecting to become a digital fashion powerhouse. He has, in a way, since he leads a full-time team of modelers and a rigger that help him design multiple items a day. When he first started selling avatar accessories in early 2023, he gravitated toward tongue-in-cheek ideas inspired by internet culture.

“The weirdest design I made that sold well was the SIGMA Chain,” he wrote. “It was part of my very first UGC drop in early 2023 and ended up getting over 13,000 sales. That moment was a turning point–it made me realize this could be more than just something I did for fun. It could be a real business.”

That business began with meme-driven accessories like the Mr. Peebles Head–a giant cat head–and the Rizz Frame, a literal frame you wore around your face. They were funny, eye-catching, and briefly popular. But Batura soon realized the downside.

“While meme-based items might spike in popularity, they aren’t a sustainable niche,” he said. “So I pivoted toward streetwear, which allowed for more consistent results and long-term growth.”

At first glance, it might seem strange that the bow outperformed more complex or trendy designs. But in Roblox, simplicity is a superpower. Players want items that work across multiple outfits and social settings. The bow managed to be playful without being tied to a specific meme or cultural reference, making it endlessly adaptable.

It also didn’t hurt that it dropped during the Christmas season, when the Roblox avatar shop is flooded with players looking for festive ways to dress up. Big, bright, and jolly, the bow was the right item at the right time.

Topcat and his team.

And once enough players picked it up, it became inescapable. Roblox fashion spreads not just through the in-game store, but through visibility in popular experiences, streamers’ avatars, TikTok edits, and YouTube skits. The bow wasn’t just an item–it was a trend, woven into Roblox culture.

The success of the Big Hair Bow underscores how Roblox fashion has matured into its own industry. The UGC program has empowered thousands of independent designers to create and sell virtual clothing, and with hundreds of millions of monthly users on the platform, the audience is massive.

For some, like Batura, it has become a career. The fact that one digital accessory can generate six-figure sales is a reminder that digital fashion isn’t a novelty; it’s an economy. Roblox has seen collaborations with luxury brands like Gucci, Ralph Lauren, and Nike, but the real pulse of its fashion world comes from homegrown creators. They move quickly, understand the platform’s culture, and know when to trade high-concept ideas for something as straightforward as a bow.

“Seeing something I created become part of the culture like that has been incredibly rewarding,” he wrote. While it may amuse Batura that his most iconic creation is essentially a cartoon bow, it’s fitting. Roblox fashion is democratic and often surprising. Success doesn’t always come from complexity–sometimes it comes from knowing what players will actually want to wear.

For Topcat, that realization has transformed a hobby into a livelihood. For Roblox, it’s another reminder that in the world of digital fashion, anyone–with the right idea–can become the next big trendsetter.

Read more: The latest developments in the controversy involving Roblox.



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