Deciphr Academy
Track 3 · Tokens · Module 16

Real-world assets

Treasuries, funds, credit and property on-chain, and who you really have a claim against.

Lessons
7
Reading
51 min
Quiz
15 questions
Pass mark
80%
  1. 1What tokenisation meansWhat does tokenisation mean for real-world assets?6 min
  2. 2Tokenised treasuries and money fundsWhat is a tokenised Treasury fund or money market fund?7 min
  3. 3Private creditWhat is tokenised private credit?7 min
  4. 4Property and commoditiesHow do tokenised gold and property work?8 min
  5. 5The legal wrapper: your real claimWho do you really have a claim against when you hold a tokenised asset?8 min
  6. 6Transfer rules and permissioned tokensWhy can't I send some tokenised assets to any wallet?7 min
  7. 7Risks: custody, redemption, lawWhat are the main risks of tokenised real-world assets?8 min

The case used in this module

Each module tells its own made-up Brindlecove story, so details can differ from one module to the next.

Key words

Tokenisation
Creating and recording a digital version of a traditional asset on a programmable platform, such as a blockchain.1
Real-world asset (RWA)
An industry name for a token linked to an asset that exists outside the blockchain, such as a fund share, a loan or gold.23
Money market fund
A fund that invests in liquid, short-term debt, cash and cash equivalents.4
Net asset value (NAV)
A fund's total assets minus its total liabilities. Divide it by the number of shares to get the NAV per share.5
Transfer agent
The firm that keeps the record of who owns a security, records changes of ownership and pays out dividends.6
Custodian
A firm that keeps assets safe on behalf of others.21
Special purpose vehicle (SPV)
A separate legal entity, set up by a sponsoring firm, that usually only holds and finances specific assets.7
Bankruptcy remoteness
A design that keeps an SPV's assets away from the sponsor's creditors if the sponsor goes bankrupt.7
Permissioned token
A token that only approved, checked investors can hold or receive.8
Allowlist
The list of approved wallets that a permissioned token can move to. Many documents call it a whitelist.89
KYC (know your customer)
The identity checks a firm runs on you before it opens your account.910
Redemption
Handing tokens or fund shares back to the issuer in exchange for cash or the underlying asset.112
Private credit
Loans to private businesses from lenders that are not banks, such as private credit funds.12
Interval fund
A fund that offers to buy back only a set share of its shares, 5% to 25%, at set times.13
Sources
  1. Tokenisation in the context of money and other assets: concepts and implications for central banks. Bank for International Settlements and Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures, report to the G20, October 2024.
  2. The Financial Stability Implications of Tokenisation. Financial Stability Board, 22 October 2024.
  3. Apollo and Securitize Announce Partnership and Launch Tokenized Access to Credit Fund on Aptos, Avalanche, Ethereum, Ink, Polygon, and Solana Networks. Securitize press release, via PR Newswire, 30 January 2025.
  4. Mutual funds. Investor.gov, US Securities and Exchange Commission.
  5. Net asset value (glossary). Investor.gov, US Securities and Exchange Commission.
  6. Transfer agents. US Securities and Exchange Commission, Division of Trading and Markets.
  7. Report on Special Purpose Entities. The Joint Forum (Basel Committee, IOSCO and IAIS), Bank for International Settlements, September 2009.
  8. ERC-3643: T-REX - Token for Regulated EXchanges. Ethereum Improvement Proposals (Lebrun, Malghem, Thizy, Falempin and Boudjemaa), status Final, created 9 July 2021.
  9. Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund: summary prospectus. Franklin Templeton Trust, filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, 1 August 2026.
  10. Asset Tokenization in Financial Markets: The Next Generation of Value Exchange. World Economic Forum, in collaboration with Accenture, May 2025.
  11. OUSG: Overview. Ondo Finance documentation (read 22 October 2026).
  12. Private Credit: Characteristics and Risks (FEDS Notes). Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Fang Cai and Sharjil Haque), 23 February 2024.
  13. Investor Bulletin: Interval funds. Investor.gov, US Securities and Exchange Commission.