Exchange sees surging demand for on-chain exposure to gold, equities, and indices as RWA adoption accelerates

BTCC, one of the world’s longest-operating cryptocurrency exchanges, has reported $29.2 billion in trading volume from its tokenized real-world asset (RWA) futures during Q2 and Q3 2025. The performance underscores growing investor appetite for blockchain-based representations of traditional financial instruments as the global RWA market surpasses $30 billion in total value locked (TVL).

RWA Futures Surge in Popularity

According to BTCC’s internal data, tokenized futures linked to gold, U.S. stock indices, and large-cap equities were the top performers. The platform recorded $16.4 billion in volume during Q2 and $12.8 billion in Q3, with the most-traded contracts referencing gold, the S&P 500, Dow Jones, NASDAQ-100, Tesla, NVIDIA, Apple, Coinbase, and Circle Internet Group.

BTCC currently offers more than 50 tokenized futures products, allowing users to trade equities, commodities, indices, and forex pairs using USDT as collateral. Traders can access up to 150x leverage on precious metals and 20x on equity-based futures, catering to both professional derivatives traders and institutional participants entering the tokenized asset space.

“Cross-market participation in RWA products is expanding faster than anyone expected,” said Peter Lee, Chief Marketing Officer at BTCC. “With more institutions exploring tokenized exposure to equities, commodities, and indices, BTCC’s RWA futures platform bridges familiar assets with crypto-native settlement—bringing institutional-grade efficiency to both sides of the market.”

Investor Takeaway

BTCC’s rapid rise in RWA futures activity signals that tokenized versions of traditional assets—especially gold and equities—are becoming a mainstream trading category within crypto markets.

Bridging Traditional and On-Chain Finance

Tokenized RWAs—blockchain-based representations of traditional assets such as equities, commodities, and treasuries—enable exposure to off-chain markets with on-chain settlement, transparency, and collateral management. For BTCC, this convergence represents a major step toward integrating traditional finance (TradFi) market structures into digital asset ecosystems.

The exchange’s expansion into tokenized futures reflects the growing maturity of RWA infrastructure. While early tokenization efforts primarily targeted bond and fund products, BTCC’s focus on derivatives introduces deeper liquidity and volatility-driven opportunities, bridging two historically separate investor bases: institutional traders and crypto-native users.

This cross-pollination of markets is being echoed across the industry. Major financial institutions such as BlackRock and JPMorgan have begun exploring RWA tokenization for yield-bearing products and settlement efficiency. BTCC’s performance, however, highlights the parallel growth occurring in tokenized derivatives markets—a niche now gaining traction as traders seek instruments that mirror traditional exposure with crypto’s agility.

Investor Takeaway

For crypto traders, BTCC’s RWA futures offer a way to hedge macro exposures and diversify portfolios without leaving the on-chain environment—signaling a step closer to unified DeFi-TradFi markets.

The Bigger Picture: Tokenization as a Market Driver

The broader RWA tokenization sector continues to expand at an unprecedented pace. According to data from 21.co and Dune Analytics, total RWA value locked grew from under $10 billion in 2023 to more than $30 billion by late 2025—driven by tokenized U.S. Treasuries, real estate, and commodities. BTCC’s futures initiative adds a new dimension to this ecosystem by enabling traders to speculate or hedge positions in a fully collateralized, on-chain format.

For BTCC, which has served over 10 million users since its founding in 2011, the results reaffirm its strategy to blend traditional market familiarity with decentralized settlement models. The exchange’s continued RWA expansion signals its broader ambition to capture institutional flows moving toward tokenized markets and to establish itself as a key venue for derivative-based RWAs.

As tokenization evolves from a concept to a core trading infrastructure, BTCC’s success with RWA futures underscores how crypto exchanges are redefining the boundaries of capital markets—connecting global liquidity to programmable, transparent financial instruments.