Kevin Yunai, founder and CEO of RWA Inc, said platforms must build liquidity and full market infrastructure to unlock value in the real-world asset tokenization sector. Yunai stated that simple tokenization alone does not create the liquidity, investor demand, or institutional confidence needed for the market to function effectively. He expects progress over the next five years to come through deeper RWA markets and the development of institutional-grade standards. The RWA sector is transitioning from a focus on asset issuance to building the market infrastructure required for tokenized assets to become tradable, financeable, and integrated into broader financial ecosystems.
Kevin Yunai Distinguishes Tokenization From Productive Onchain Finance
Yunai drew a distinction between basic tokenization and what he termed "productive onchain finance." He said, "Simple tokenization is putting an asset representation onchain. Productive onchain finance is when that asset becomes usable: tradable, financeable, pledgeable, composable, transparent, and connected to real economic yield." According to Yunai, tokenization alone creates a digital wrapper around an asset but does not automatically create liquidity, investor demand, transparency, or institutional confidence. He stated, "Tokenization alone is not the innovation. The innovation is turning real-world assets into programmable financial instruments with fixed supply." Yunai emphasized that the strongest platforms will help tokenized assets function inside a broader financial ecosystem with access to wallets, exchanges, custodians, DeFi infrastructure, reporting systems, and compliant secondary markets.
RWA Inc Identifies Market Infrastructure as Industry Bottleneck
Yunai identified tradability rather than asset creation as the RWA industry's bottleneck. He said, "The industry needs more than issuance platforms. It needs full market infrastructure." According to Yunai, many tokenized assets exist but relatively few are meaningfully liquid because the market has over-indexed on issuance platforms while underbuilding infrastructure needed to support active, trusted markets. He stated that required infrastructure includes regulated secondary markets, reliable market makers, standardized disclosures, trusted custody, verified pricing, interoperable compliance, identity layers, institutional settlement, and clear redemption mechanics. Yunai said, "Liquidity is not created by minting a token. It is created by trust, standards, distribution, and market depth."
Kevin Yunai Says Blockchain Efficiency Must Combine With Legal Discipline
Yunai rejected the assumption that blockchain efficiency can replace legal and operational discipline. He said, "You have to respect both worlds. Blockchain gives speed, transparency, automation, and global reach. Real-world assets require legal enforceability, ownership structures, custody, KYC, reporting, valuation, and redemption processes." According to Yunai, a tokenized asset only has value if the token is connected to a clearly defined economic or ownership right supported by legal documentation, asset custody, investor eligibility rules, transfer restrictions, reporting obligations, and redemption procedures. He stated, "At RWA Inc, we do not believe in pretending that legal reality disappears because an asset is tokenized. The correct model is to combine compliant legal structures with efficient blockchain rails."
RWA Inc Positions Access as Prerequisite for Sustainable Liquidity
Yunai stated that access to tokenized assets comes before liquidity. He said, "It is both, but access comes first. You cannot have sustainable liquidity without trusted access first." According to Yunai, tokenization can reduce barriers related to geography, regulation, high minimum investment sizes, banking limitations, or intermediary control by making participation more efficient, fractional, and globally accessible. He explained that sustainable liquidity depends on credible access, compliant distribution, verified information, and confidence in market rules. Yunai stated that the larger promise of tokenization is that more investors may be able to participate in opportunities that were previously unavailable to them.
Kevin Yunai Outlines Institutional Standards Required for RWA Adoption
Yunai said institutional investors need clear standards for RWAs to become mainstream. He stated the market needs standards around asset verification, custody, legal enforceability, valuation, disclosures, audits, compliance, KYC and AML controls, transfer restrictions, redemption rights, and ongoing reporting. According to Yunai, institutions need to be able to evaluate tokenized assets in the same disciplined way they evaluate traditional financial products, including knowing what they own, who controls the asset, how cash flows are handled, what happens in default, how disputes are resolved, and how information is reported over time. He said that without common standards, the RWA market risks fragmentation with each issuer, platform, jurisdiction, and asset category operating under different assumptions.
RWA Inc Sees Value Accruing to Platforms Controlling Trust and Distribution
Yunai stated that as tokenization matures, the most strategic position belongs to platforms that control trust, distribution, and liquidity. He said, "The most value will go to the platforms that control trust, distribution, and liquidity." According to Yunai, the winners will not necessarily be the companies that tokenize the most assets, as issuance is only one part of the market. He explained that the more defensible opportunity is building trusted financial networks around tokenized assets that connect asset originators, investors, custodians, compliance systems, pricing data, market venues, and reporting infrastructure. Yunai stated that these networks need to provide confidence that the tokenized asset is real, enforceable, compliant, and usable.
Yunai said, "Success is not only trillions of dollars tokenized. That number will come if the infrastructure is built correctly." He stated that a more meaningful sign of progress would be deep secondary markets, institutional-grade standards, global investor access, transparent reporting, and tokenized assets becoming part of everyday financial infrastructure. Yunai said, "The goal is not just to tokenize the old financial system. The goal is to build a better one."
FAQ
What did Kevin Yunai say about RWA platforms?
Kevin Yunai, founder and CEO of RWA Inc, said platforms must build liquidity and full market infrastructure to unlock value in the real-world asset tokenization sector. He stated that simple tokenization alone does not create the liquidity, investor demand, or institutional confidence needed for the market to function effectively.
What infrastructure does Kevin Yunai say the RWA industry needs?
Yunai said the industry needs full market infrastructure including regulated secondary markets, reliable market makers, standardized disclosures, trusted custody, verified pricing, interoperable compliance, identity layers, institutional settlement, and clear redemption mechanics. He stated that liquidity is created by trust, standards, distribution, and market depth rather than by minting a token.
What standards does Kevin Yunai say institutions require for RWA adoption?
Yunai stated the market needs clear standards around asset verification, custody, legal enforceability, valuation, disclosures, audits, compliance, KYC and AML controls, transfer restrictions, redemption rights, and ongoing reporting. He said institutions need to be able to evaluate tokenized assets in the same disciplined way they evaluate traditional financial products.
