Crypto’s $24B RWA Gold Rush Finds Its Elite Training Ground: Ascend Startup Accelerator
Wall Street's playing catch-up—again. While traditional finance snoozed on tokenization, crypto's been quietly building the rails for the next trillion-dollar asset class. Now Ascend's accelerator is minting the startups that'll bridge the gap between DeFi and the $24B real-world asset (RWA) gold rush.
Forget 'disruption'—this is outright colonization. Gold, real estate, even carbon credits are getting the blockchain treatment, and VCs are throwing checks at founders who can digitize tangible assets faster than a Goldman Sachs PowerPoint deck.
The irony? Banks spent years dismissing crypto as 'worthless.' Now they're scrambling to replicate it. Meanwhile, Ascend's cohort is building the infrastructure to tokenize everything from Swiss villas to rare earth metals—no investment banking middlemen required.
Bridging the institutional gap in crypto’s fastest-growing sector
The Ascend accelerator arrives at a pivotal moment for real-world asset tokenization, a sector that has quietly become blockchain’s most credible bridge to traditional finance. While the $24 billion RWA market has grown nearly fivefold since 2022, its infrastructure remains fragmented between institutional-grade compliance demands and DeFi’s permissionless innovation. This is the chasm Ascend’s architects aim to cross.
The program’s selection criteria reveal its institutional focus: Only startups with live products and measurable traction need apply. Unlike typical accelerators that bet on ideas, Ascend targets teams already navigating the complex realities of asset tokenization—from reconciling KYC requirements with blockchain’s pseudonymity to designing oracle systems that accurately price illiquid assets.
“Real World Assets are gaining momentum, driven by support and interest from institutional investors, governments, and infrastructure providers looking for transparent, efficient capital solutions. RWAs are no longer speculative; the sector’s growth is strategic. We’re meeting this need by working together to develop the next generation of RWA leaders, equipping them with experience, resources, and access,” Chris Yin, CEO and Co-Founder of Plume, said.
The launch of the Ascend accelerator comes as tokenized U.S. Treasuries demonstrate the explosive potential of institutional-grade RWAs. What began as a $100 million niche in 2023 has ballooned into a $7.5 billion market dominated by BlackRock’s BUIDL at $2.9 billion in AUM and Franklin Templeton’s BENJI, which hosts $750 million in AUM.
These products aren’t experiments. They’re production-scale solutions attracting real capital by solving tangible problems: eliminating settlement delays, automating compliance, and unlocking global liquidity pools.
As the RWA sector pushes toward broader integration with capital markets, the stakes have changed. Institutions are no longer asking if tokenization works, they’re asking who can execute it securely, compliantly, and at scale. Ascend’s success will hinge not on speculation, but on its ability to produce answers to that question.
