1.1 Illiquidity in Real-World Assets

Real-world assets (RWAs): including luxury goods, fine art, real estate, rare collectibles, and authenticated physical items: represent an immense store of value, estimated at over $300 trillion globally. However, despite their intrinsic worth, the vast majority of these assets are functionally illiquid. Transferring ownership often requires lengthy settlement cycles, legal intermediaries, physical inspections, and jurisdictional compliance that fragment value across borders and participants.

Asset owners are thus burdened by constrained financial optionality, while global investors remain locked out of participation. Illiquidity imposes an opportunity cost on the real economy, as trillions in value sit idle, unleveraged, and disconnected from digital capital flows.