Top 3 Crypto RWA Projects by Development: Chainlink, Avalanche, Stellar Lead the Charge

• Chainlink tops crypto RWA dev charts, price up 5.17%, pushing hard with CCIP and APIs.
• Avalanche, Stellar trail Chainlink in development, all working on bridging real-world assets to blockchains.

Santiment’s May 23 report spotlighted the development pace in crypto projects working towards real-world assets (RWA). Chainlink, Avalanche, and Stellar lead as the top three highest in terms of development activity, with Chainlink taking the lead with a healthy margin.

The report measures the 30-day development score and provides insight into the platforms working with the highest amount of technical investment.

Source: Santiment

Chainlink Tops Development Activity

Chainlink occupies the first rank with a score of 532.43 in terms of development activity. In the past 24 hours alone, the token registered a 5.17% increase in value to $16.69. The market cap of the project is currently sitting at $10.96 billion and ranks 29th position overall.

Chainlink is establishing the technical groundwork to back tokenized financial products through the development of fundamental capabilities required for their success. They are creating decentralized data feeds bringing real-world data onto blockchains. Their Proof of Reserve system aids in establishing that off-chain assets do actually back issued tokens.

At the core of Chainlink’s RWA strategy is its Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP), a system facilitating the exchange of tokens and data across various blockchain networks. This will open up more use cases and deeper network interaction. Chainlink Smart contracts can currently retrieve and handle data from any API through the project’s Functions feature.

Avalanche’s Investment in Real-world Assets

Avalanche took the position of the second place with a development score of 290.87 registering a 10.32% surge in its value to $25.07. The market cap of the project is $10.55 billion and is just trailing Chainlink.

Avalanche is further expanding its role in asset tokenization through targeted efforts. The Avalanche Foundation’s Vista initiative reserved up to $50 million earlier this year to buy tokenized assets onto its blockchain. This investment will demonstrate the capability of tokenized finance to work properly in the real world.

Traditional finance giants have also shown interest. Citibank utilized Avalanche’s testnet to execute a proof-of-concept tokenization of private fund assets. The initiative is gaining comparable institutional collaborations. Furthermore, asset manager VanEck will introduce the PurposeBuilt Fund in June 2025.

Stellar’s Expanding RWA Network

Stellar took third place with a development score of 240.7 and a 4.23% growth in price. Collectively, the two are at the forefront of the current wave in RWA tokenization with their sustained technical innovations.

In December 2024, the RWA Foundation DAO, an industry organization establishing standards for tokenized assets platforms, accepted Stellar as a founding member. The value of RWA on the network of the Stellar Development Foundation later established a target to increase from $290 million to $3 billion by the end of 2025.

Stellar is gaining popularity with large financial institutions. Franklin Templeton and WisdomTree are among companies relying on the infrastructure provided by Stellar to issue tokenized U.S. Treasuries and investment funds. The fast speeds of the network and low costs make it suitable for dealing with high volumes. Its native asset management tools assist with financial regulation compliance.