BTC breaks above $64,000, RWA outperforms the broader market: Why ONDO and PENDLE are rising together

On July 10, 2026, the crypto market saw a broad rebound after several consecutive days of pullback. According to Gate market data, Bitcoin (BTC) was at $64,034, up 3.7% over the past 24 hours, reclaiming the $64,000 round-number level. Ethereum (ETH) was at $1,775, up 1.8% over the same period. Bitcoin Volatility Index (BVIX) was last quoted at 38.62, with a 3.09% intraday decline, suggesting that expected market volatility has started to converge.

From a price-action perspective, $64,000 is an important psychological and technical resistance level in the near term. Whether BTC can break through that level and hold effectively will directly affect investors’ risk appetite and the direction of capital allocation going forward. If BTC consolidates sideways above $64,000, the capital “siphon” effect previously generated by BTC’s rally will gradually weaken, and market funds may start to overflow into other sectors. The formation of this price-action structure lays the foundation for sector rotation.

What drives the 4.28% rise in the RWA sector

In this rebound, the tokenized real-world assets (RWA) sector stood out the most. According to Gate market data, the RWA sector rose 4.28% over the past 24 hours, significantly outperforming the broader market. In the same period, the Layer 2 sector rose by about 4.05%, and the DeFi sector rose by about 3.30%. The RWA sector’s leading performance is not an isolated price fluctuation; it is built on a series of structural factors.

As of the first half of 2026, the total market capitalization of tokenized on-chain RWA has surpassed $34 billion, more than five times the roughly $5.4 billion baseline at the start of 2025. Bitwise’s Q2 2026 report shows that tokenized RWA grew 50.3% to $32.89 billion during that quarter. This growth rate far exceeds the growth in DeFi and stablecoins over the same period. The substantive entry of traditional financial institutions is a core driver—institutions such as BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, JPMorgan, and Standard Chartered have all begun laying out plans in the tokenization space. The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) has announced that it will launch a securities tokenization pilot on July 2026 and go live in October, covering Russell 1000 constituent stocks, high-turnover ETFs, and U.S. Treasuries; more than 50 institutions have joined the industry working group.

How does the tokenization narrative for traditional assets affect capital flows

The sustained strength of the RWA sector is rooted in a deeper market logic: the tokenization of traditional assets is moving from the concept-validation stage toward large-scale applications. What allows this narrative to continue attracting capital is that it connects two capital worlds of vastly different sizes—the crypto market and traditional finance.

In terms of asset categories, today’s tokenized RWA spans multiple types, including U.S. Treasuries, tokenized stocks, precious metals, and private credit. As of May 2026, the total market capitalization of tokenized RWA reached $31.4 billion, including about $15 billion in tokenized treasuries and about $1.5 billion in tokenized publicly listed equities on-chain. Although tokenized stocks still have a relatively small absolute scale, their growth and institutional attention are rapidly catching up. In a recent report, Grayscale research head Zach Pandl noted that tokenized stocks are becoming an important evolution direction in this crypto cycle.

For institutional investors, RWA tokenization offers multiple efficiency improvements: automated interest payments and redemptions, shorter settlement cycles, and a broader customer base. Parties seeking low risk, low return, and high liquidity can allocate to treasury-like tokenized products, while investors aiming for higher returns can choose higher-risk categories. This tiered product structure enables the RWA track to reach capital across different risk preferences, rather than relying solely on speculative liquidity within the crypto market.

What fundamental support is behind Ondo, Pendle, and Sky rising together

Within the sector, Ondo Finance (ONDO), Pendle (PENDLE), and Sky (SKY) all moved higher collectively on July 10. Together, they represent projects in different sub-directions within the RWA track, and each has its own focus in terms of the rationale behind the upside.

Ondo Finance is the leading project in the tokenized equities track. Its tokenized equities platform, Ondo Global Markets, has a market share approaching seven-tenths. On July 7, Ondo launched the Ondo Perps platform, allowing investors outside the U.S. to use tokenized stock and ETF holdings as collateral to trade perpetual contracts on U.S. stocks, offering leverage up to 20x for a broad range of tradable assets. The platform supports 24/7 trading and covers stocks, ETFs, and commodities. On July 10, Ondo further expanded its 24/7 on-chain minting and redemption services for tokenized U.S. stocks to the Solana network, completing the multi-chain rollout previously initiated on Ethereum and BNB Chain. This series of product iterations and expansions broadens the application scenarios for tokenized RWA—from simply holding on-chain assets to becoming multifunctional collateral that can generate capital efficiency.

Pendle focuses on tokenized yield and interest-rate trading. Its core mechanism separates the principal of yield-bearing assets from future yield, allowing both to be traded independently. As of March 2026, Pendle’s Boros platform cumulative trading volume has exceeded $12 billion, enabling traders to hedge or speculate on funding rates on perpetual exchanges. Against the backdrop of the current interest-rate environment and the expansion of yield-bearing assets, Pendle’s yield trading products provide more flexible liquidity management tools for RWA assets.

Sky Protocol (formerly MakerDAO) is a representative protocol in the DeFi stablecoin space, and its stablecoin USDS reserves include RWA assets such as U.S. Treasuries. Sky recently integrated the LitePeg module with Uniswap, routing trades of DAI, USDS, and USDC to Sky’s on-chain liquidity pools to enable stablecoin swaps with near-zero slippage. This integration enhances the liquidity and composability of RWA-backed stablecoins within the DeFi ecosystem.

Where does RWA sit in crypto sector rotation

From the perspective of capital rotation, after BTC breaks through a key resistance level, sector transmission typically follows a certain pattern. Some market analysis divides rotation into several tiers: the first tier is Ethereum and DeFi blue-chip projects; the second tier is high-performance public chain ecosystems such as Solana; the third tier is RWA, stablecoins, and on-chain financial infrastructure. The core advantage of the RWA sector is not short-term sentiment-driven momentum, but rather long-term logic built on institutions bringing assets on-chain, stablecoin expansion, and on-chain financial infrastructure.

In a backdrop of moderate market repair rather than a full bull market, sectors with fundamental support and institutional narratives often attract capital more easily than purely concept-driven small-cap tokens. The RWA track fits this profile well: it has quantifiable asset growth data (total on-chain RWA market cap of $34 billion), clear institutional participants (BlackRock, JPMorgan, etc.), and clear product forms (tokenized treasuries, stocks, and credit).

Compared with other sectors, RWA’s differentiation is that its asset side is anchored to real value from the traditional financial world, not speculative value from internal cycles within the crypto ecosystem. This allows the RWA sector to show stronger resilience during market volatility—despite the overall crypto market pressure in the second quarter highlighted by Bitwise’s report, tokenized RWA still grew 50.3%.

What constraints does sustained growth in the RWA track face

Although the RWA track is showing strong growth momentum, its continued expansion still faces multiple constraints. The regulatory framework is the primary variable. Sources say that the earliest publication of the unified U.S. “Clarity Act” version may be announced as early as next week, with a Senate vote expected during the week of July 20. The bill’s advancement timeline and its final contents will directly affect the compliance pathways for tokenized assets and the conditions for market access.

Second, the depth of on-chain liquidity and the activity of secondary markets remain far below those of traditional asset categories. The total market cap of tokenized equities is about $1.5 billion, which is vastly different from the scale of traditional stock markets. The trading efficiency, pricing mechanisms, and clearing systems for on-chain RWA assets are still evolving, and sustained inflows of large-scale institutional capital still require more complete infrastructure support.

In addition, the competitive landscape among different blockchain networks in the RWA space has not yet been finalized. The total value of tokenized RWA on the Solana chain has reached a new high of $3.6 billion, while Ethereum and its Layer 2 networks still maintain advantages in narrower sub-sectors such as tokenized treasuries. The level of cross-chain liquidity and standardization of RWA assets will determine whether this track can truly achieve step-change growth at scale.

From BTC at $64,000 to RWA leading the market, what signals is the market sending

Overall, the combination of BTC breaking $64,000 and the RWA sector leading with a 4.28% gain on July 10 is not simply a narrative of a broad market rebound. It conveys signals on several levels:

First, after consecutive pullbacks, market risk appetite is repairing, but capital is not flowing indiscriminately into every sector. Funds are prioritizing tracks with fundamental support. The RWA sector’s leading performance validates this view.

Second, the tokenization of traditional assets has gradually grown from a peripheral narrative into a mainstream investment theme. The $34 billion total on-chain RWA market cap, quarterly growth of over 50%, and deep participation by mainstream institutions such as Grayscale and DTCC collectively provide multiple confirmations of this trend.

Third, the internal structure within the RWA track is diversifying—sub-directions such as tokenized equities, tokenized treasuries, and yield trading are each forming distinct leading projects and competitive landscapes. Ondo’s product expansion, Pendle’s deepening yield trading, and Sky’s stablecoin and DeFi integration each represent different evolution paths within the RWA track.

Summary

On July 10, 2026, the crypto market saw a broad rebound. BTC was $64,034, up 3.7% over 24 hours. The RWA sector led the entire market with a 4.28% 24-hour gain, significantly outperforming sectors such as Layer 2 (4.05%) and DeFi (3.30%). Within the sector, Ondo Finance (ONDO), Pendle (PENDLE), and Sky (SKY) all moved higher together.

The strong performance of the RWA sector is rooted in structural trends in tokenized real-world assets: the total on-chain tokenized RWA market cap has surpassed $34 billion, more than five times higher than at the start of 2025; traditional financial institutions including BlackRock and JPMorgan have moved in across the board; and DTCC started securities tokenization pilots in July. Ondo launched a tokenized equities perpetual contract platform, Pendle deepened its yield trading infrastructure, and Sky expanded stablecoin liquidity integration—each of the three pushing the ecosystem evolution of the RWA track from different dimensions.

Sustained growth in the RWA track still needs to watch constraints such as regulatory progress (especially the “Clarity Act”), on-chain liquidity depth, and cross-chain standardization. But from a medium- to long-term perspective, the scale gap between the two capital worlds connected by traditional asset tokenization means the growth ceiling for this track remains extremely high.

FAQ

Q1: What is the RWA sector? What asset categories does it include?

The tokenized RWA (Real World Assets, real-world assets) sector refers to a crypto track that tokenizes real-world or financial assets from the traditional finance world (such as U.S. Treasuries, stocks, precious metals, private credit, etc.) using blockchain technology, enabling them to be traded, transferred, and composed on-chain. As of the first half of 2026, the total market capitalization of tokenized on-chain RWA has surpassed $34 billion.

Q2: What is Ondo Finance’s main recent catalyst?

On July 7, Ondo launched the Ondo Perps platform, the first permissionless platform that allows users to use tokenized stock and ETF holdings as collateral to trade perpetual contracts on U.S. stocks, offering leverage up to 20x. On July 10, Ondo further expanded its 24/7 minting and redemption services for tokenized U.S. stocks to the Solana network.

Q3: What role does Pendle play in the RWA track?

Pendle is a leading tokenized yield protocol. Its core mechanism separates the principal of yield-bearing assets from future yield, enabling both to be traded independently. Its Boros platform cumulative trading volume has exceeded $12 billion. Pendle provides foundational infrastructure for yield management and interest-rate trading for RWA assets.

Q4: What are the main risks for the RWA track in the future?

Main risks include: regulatory uncertainty (such as the final content of the “Clarity Act” and its advancement timeline); insufficient on-chain liquidity depth—sustained inflows of large institutional capital still require more complete infrastructure support; and competition among different blockchain networks and incomplete standardization progress.

Q5: How does the RWA sector differ from the DeFi sector?

The RWA sector’s asset side is anchored to real value in the traditional finance world (treasuries, stocks, etc.), while the DeFi sector’s assets mostly circulate within the crypto ecosystem. The growth drivers for RWA come more from traditional financial institutions’ allocation demands and compliance processes, rather than speculative liquidity within the crypto market. The two are accelerating toward convergence—RWA assets are increasingly used as collateral in DeFi protocols and as a source of yield.