Woo X exchange launches world’s first tokenized T-bills for retail

Woo X cryptocurrency exchange has launched tokenized Treasury Bills (T-Bills), claiming to be the first protocol to offer tokenized T-Bills for retail investors.

Woo X launched its real-world–asset (RWA) tokenization vaults, RWA Earn Vaults, enabling users to earn yield by holding Circle’s USD Coin ( USDC ), according to an April 22 X post .

“With the RWA Earn Vaults, all @WOO_X users can now earn stable, predictable yield on their USDC holdings backed by U.S. Treasury Bills without having to jump through any extra hoops.”

Backed solely by U.S. T-bills, RWA Earn Vaults offer between 4.5% and 4.7% annual percentage rate (APR) to USDC holders. According to the announcement:

“User subscriptions accumulate real yields, fully backed by U.S. Treasury Bills, with current APRs for 7-day and 28-day terms at ~4.5% and ~4.75% respectively.”

Related: Hashing It Out: Are RWAs the future of crypto?

The yield-earning product was launched in partnership with OpenTrade, a London-headquartered tokenization platform backed by Circle.

Circle is the issuer of the world’s second-largest stablecoin, USDC, which sits at a $34 billion market cap, behind Tether USD’s ( USDT ) over $109 billion market capitalization, according to CoinMarketCap data.

Related: USDT aims to offer a lifeline to inflation-stricken nations: Tether CEO

RWAs were the second most profitable crypto narrative in Q1 2024

RWAs were the second most profitable narrative in the crypto space during the first quarter of 2024, according to a recent report by CoinGecko.

“The memecoin narrative was 4.6 times more profitable than the next best-performing crypto narrative of tokenized real-world assets (RWA) and 33.3 times more profitable than the layer 2 narratives with the lowest returns in Q1 this year,” said CoinGecko analyst Lim Yu Qian.

Showcasing the growing institutional interest in the RWA sector, the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, launched a USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund on March 20, tickered “BUIDL,” worth over $298 million at press time, according to Etherscan .

Over $1 billion worth of U.S. Treasuries have been tokenized through 17 tokenization products by March 28, which rose to $1.15 billion by April 22, according to Dune data.

Franklin Templeton’s Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund (FOBXX) remains the largest treasury tokenization fund, worth over $390 million at press time, according to Dune.

Related: EigenLayer on the brink of potential yield crisis