What Are Real-World Assets (RWA)?

Real-world assets (RWA) are assets that exist outside a blockchain: gold held in a vault, company shares, fund units, government debt, real estate or art. Ethereum's documentation describes RWA tokens as tokens that represent existing wealth of this kind. Tokenization is the step that creates the token: a named issuer records a digital token on a blockchain that is meant to correspond to the asset, or to a claim on it.

Two parts therefore always exist side by side. The asset sits in the ordinary financial or physical world, with a custodian, a legal owner and a market of its own. The token sits on the blockchain and moves between wallets. What a holder can claim depends on how the two are connected.

A token is a record of a claim, not the asset itself. A gold bar, a share certificate or a building cannot be moved onto a blockchain; what moves is an entry showing who holds the token. Ethereum's documentation notes that such tokens have no value of their own: their worth follows the item they represent.

The link has three parts: the issuer, which creates the token and publishes its terms; the custodian, which holds the underlying gold, shares or fund units; and the legal framework, which decides whether token ownership is recognized. Ethereum's documentation says the connection between an asset and its token has to be verified and describes proof of reserves as a positive sign. Tokenization changes how a claim is recorded; it does not change what the asset is worth.

Ethereum's documentation names tangible items such as gold and buildings, and intangible ones such as government debt and company equity. The groups Lzzo.com tracks are narrower, because each product needs a named issuer, a verified chain and a verified contract address:

• Tokenized stocks, ETFs and fund units: tokens issued against a company share or a fund share. On October 12, 2026, lzzo.com/rwa pointed to 45 of them, from programmes that include xStocks, Ondo Global Markets and bStocks.
• Tokenized commodities: tokens that stand for physical gold or silver held by a custodian. On the same date lzzo.com/rwa listed six, including Tether Gold, PAX Gold and Kinesis Silver.
• Other classes, such as real estate, art and debt, are also tokenized, but Lzzo.com tracks stocks and commodities only.

Not necessarily, and the answer differs by product. Lzzo.com's tokenized stocks page states that in most cases the token holder does not become a shareholder of the underlying company; voting rights, dividends and redemption follow the terms the issuer publishes.

Staff of the US Securities and Exchange Commission drew a similar line on January 28, 2026. Their statement separates securities tokenized by or for the issuer from those tokenized by unaffiliated third parties, and describes two third-party models: a custodial one, where a third party holds the underlying security and issues a crypto asset representing the holder's interest, and a synthetic one, where it issues its own security that gives exposure to the underlying one.

It warns that such a token's rights may differ materially from the security's, may not include ownership, and that holders can face risks tied to the third party, such as its bankruptcy. It reflects staff views only and is not a rule.

A token has its own market. Lzzo.com shows each token's own trading price, never the underlying asset's, and notes that tokens can change hands outside the trading hours of the underlying exchange. While that exchange is closed, the token price can move away from the last close, and the gap may close or persist when it reopens.

Units matter as well. As recorded on Lzzo.com on October 5, 2026 from issuer sites, PAX Gold and Tether Gold each stand for one troy ounce of gold, while Kinesis Gold stands for one gram. On October 12, 2026 at about 08:10 UTC, lzzo.com/rwa listed them at $4,173.04, $4,171.03 and $135.37. The last figure is not cheaper gold; it is a smaller unit. When the markets where a token trades disagree markedly, Lzzo.com shows no price at all.

Beyond the price movement of the underlying asset itself, tokenization adds layers that can each fail separately:

• Issuer risk: the token's value depends on the issuer meeting its obligations and on its terms for fees, redemption and who may hold the token.
• Custody risk: someone has to hold the gold, shares or fund units; if the custodian or the records fail, the token can lose its link to the asset.
• Legal risk: recognition of token ownership varies by jurisdiction, and Ethereum's documentation says it is unclear whether smart contracts are enforceable in court. Some products are not offered in certain countries.
• Redemption limits: a token may be redeemable only above a minimum amount or in a specific place. As recorded on Lzzo.com on October 5, 2026, Tether's gold token offers physical redemption in Switzerland above a minimum amount.

There is no single global answer, and classification usually follows a token's terms rather than its label. In the European Union, the European Securities and Markets Authority describes the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) as covering crypto-assets that existing financial services legislation does not already cover, and states that it applied in full from December 2024. Whether a given tokenized share or fund unit falls inside that scope is not settled here. For the United States, see the SEC staff statement above.

In Türkiye, Law No. 7518, published in the Official Gazette (issue 32590) on July 2, 2024, added a definition of crypto assets to the Capital Markets Law and requires crypto-asset service providers to obtain permission before operating. How it applies to a specific tokenized product depends on its terms, and this guide gives no view on that. This section is not a legal opinion and covers the law only as first published.

The RWA section groups tokenized stocks and tokenized commodities. Each row shows the token's own last price with its observation time in UTC; for tokenized stocks it also shows the premium or discount to the underlying share where both prices exist, and a dash where they do not. A token's price is never presented as the underlying's. Meme coins whose liquidity pools are paired with these tokens are listed on a separate page; they are not tokenized assets, and they are highly speculative.