🌟 Bitcoin Teases $100k, Gensler Steps Down from SEC & Aptos Becoming Institutional Favourite

Sunday is here.

Welcome back to another newsletter from us at The Merge.

Tokenisation News

🌀 Circle launch USDC on Aptos & Stripe support for native products

👨🏻‍⚖️ Gary Gensler announces step down as Head of SEC

🇺🇸 Matrixdock partners with Brink’s for Global RWA Custody with Gold to start

Read Time: 5 Minutes

Global Market Overview

Real World Assets on-chain (excl stablecoins) are worth $13.47 billion (↑1.08% from last month).

There are 66,219 Total Asset Holders (↑3.07% from last month).

• $188.79b is in Stablecoins

• $9.44b is within Private Credit

• $2.48b is in US Treasury Debt

• $1.09b is in Commodities

• $103.67m is in Global Bonds

• $10.47m is in Stocks

The top 3 networks are 🥇Ethereum ($108.42b in Total Value Locked) 🥈Tron ($62.73b in TVL) &🥉Binance Smart Chain ($5.24b in TVL).

Fancy taking a look for yourself? Check it out here.

So, what’s being tokenised this week?

Private Credit

Currently, there are $9.4 billion in active-value loans and $15.84 billion in total loan value across all protocols.

As of today, the top 3 current protocols with outstanding loans are 🥇Figure ($8.8b)🥈Maple Finance ($289m) &🥉Centrifuge ($77m).

👨🏻‍⚖️ Gary Gensler announces step down as Head of SEC

Gary Gensler, the Chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), announced he will step down on January 20, 2025, coinciding with the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump.

Gensler has been a central figure in shaping crypto regulations, often adopting an extremely tough and hawkish stance against the industry.

During his tenure, the SEC pursued high-profile legal actions against major players like Coinbase, Binance and Ripple sparking significant debate about the future of crypto in the U.S.

His resignation could mark a turning point for the industry, as many expect the incoming administration to take a more crypto-friendly approach.

Gensler's departure has already fueled speculation about potential shifts in regulatory policies that could reshape the landscape for digital assets and blockchain innovation.

This is just another domino that has fallen, leading the way for a bullish future of tokenisation 🚀

Stablecoins

Currently, the market cap of stablecoins is $188.7 billion (↑10.58% from last month)

As of today, it makes up 0.90% (↑10.58% from last month) of all M2 Money Supply with Monthly Transfer Volume totalling $1.87 trillion (↑18.4% from last month).

The top 3 current entities are 🥇Tether ($131.8b)🥈Circle ($38.2) &🥉Binance ($4.6b).

Top stories this week?

🌀 Circle launch USDC on Aptos & Stripe support for native products

The Aptos Foundation is making a big move by integrating Circle’s native USD Coin (USDC) and its Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) into the Aptos blockchain.

This integration will allow users to seamlessly transfer USDC across multiple blockchains, boosting interoperability and paving the way for new decentralized finance (DeFi) applications on Aptos.

On top of that, Stripe, the global payments giant, is adding support for Aptos in its crypto products.

This means merchants using Stripe’s crypto tools will have access to Aptos for faster and more efficient payment solutions.

Together, these developments mark a major step toward expanding DeFi capabilities and bringing blockchain-powered payments closer to everyday use cases for businesses and consumers.

Commodities

Currently, the market cap of commodities is $1.09b (↓0.98% from last week).

As of today, the Monthly Transfer Volume totals $286m (↑16.78% from last month) with 57.4k addresses that are current holders.

The top 3 current entities are 🥇Paxos ($538.1m)🥈Tether ($530.2m) & 🥉Comtech Gold ($11.48m).

Top stories this week?

🇺🇸 Matrixdock partners with Brink’s for Global RWA Custody with Gold to start

Matrixdock, a platform focused on tokenised real-world assets, has partnered with Brink's, a global leader in secure logistics, to bolster the custody and security of its gold-backed digital asset, XAUm.

This partnership ensures that the LBMA-certified gold reserves backing XAUm are stored in Brink's state-of-the-art, fully insured vaults in Singapore and Hong Kong, two of Asia's leading financial centres.

This collaboration combines Brink's decades of expertise in asset security with Matrixdock's innovation in tokenization, providing a bridge between traditional investments and modern blockchain-based solutions, especially for investors across the Asia-Pacific region.

Bonds

Currently, the total value of bonds is $103.67m (↑0.14% from last month).

As of today, the Average Yield to Maturity is 0%. There are 470 Holders (↓4.26% from last week).

The top 3 current entities are 🥇Spiko ($78.14m)🥈 Backed Finance ($20.22m)🥉 OpenTrade ($5.31m).

Stocks

Currently, the total value of stocks is $10.47m (↑34.25% from last month).

As of today, the Monthly Transfer Volume totals $582.55k (↑409% from last month🔥) with 81 Active Addresses and 319 Current Holders.

The top 3 current entities are 🥇Coinbase Global ($6.4m)🥈iShares Core S&P 500 ($2.1m) &🥉Nvidia ($1.44m).

Weekly Resource List

🌐 RWA.xyz: On-Chain RWA Analytics

Explore tokenised real-world assets and the investors, issuers and service providers participating in public blockchains. View protocol statistics, industry aggregate metrics, and the issuers all in one place (link)

🔎 Santiment: Crypto Intelligence Tool

A behaviour analytics platform for crypto, sourcing on-chain, social and development information on thousands of coins, including market signals. For RWA’s insights check out this (link) 

💳 Coinbase Wallet: The Crypto Wallet of Choice

You’ve more than likely heard and probably used Coinbase, so no introduction is needed. This is by far one of the easiest and non-crypto native wallets to be picked up and used by anyone. They even have a ‘Simple Mode’ for beginners. (link) 

As always, thanks for reading.

Vote below and let us know your thoughts this week —we’d love to hear from you.

See you next Sunday,

Merge