A TOKEN2049 Dubai showed that the crypto universe is maturing — and, more importantly, starting to impact the real world.

Among stablecoins purchasing companies, networks paying for infrastructure, and traditional assets being tokenized, we closely observed how the new economy is being reshaped for those who create, operate, and invest outside traditional financial circuits.

DUX was there not only to follow the trends but to understand how these innovations can accelerate our mission: to provide access to fast, fair, and strategic capital for those driving the creative economy.

This article summarizes the three clearest signals we saw at the event — and what they reveal about what’s coming next.

RWA: tokenizing isn’t enough — we need to generate value, liquidity, and trust

Among the most repeated words at TOKEN2049, 'RWA' — Real World Assets — stood out as one of the biggest promises of the next phase of the crypto market. The idea is simple: bring real-world assets (like credit, real estate, commodities, or contracts) into the blockchain, gaining liquidity and efficiency with programmable transparency.

But as in every new cycle, there is more optimism than real traction.

According to Chris Yin, CEO of Plume, a blockchain focused on RWAs, the on-chain volume of RWAs is inflated: estimates suggest US$ 20 billion, but the actual value circulating with auditable backing would be closer to US$ 10 billion. And even then, it is almost entirely concentrated in tokenized T-bills and gold — traditional conservative assets with low usage.

Why does this matter?

Because the narrative that 'everything will be tokenized' only holds if there are three critical elements:

1. Regulatory and legal trust — which is still limited.

2. Real and secondary liquidity — which nearly doesn’t exist outside native crypto.

3. Economically relevant use cases — which are still exceptions.

So far, RWAs follow a known pattern: they are operated by crypto-native issuers, aimed at the already embedded audience within the ecosystem, with little to no penetration in the traditional market.

Large institutions — banks, funds, insurers — continue to observe from afar. Not due to a lack of interest, but due to a lack of infrastructure: the market is still too small to justify the entry of players needing to move billions securely, at scale, and with returns.

Tokenization as a structural thesis (and not just narrative)

The question isn’t whether real assets will or won’t be tokenized. That is already happening. The question is when and how this process will truly transform markets.

RWAs have the potential to:

• Drastically reduce the costs of issuing and trading private assets.

• Provide liquidity to instruments that are currently illiquid (such as invoices, royalties, carbon credits).

• Democratize access to high-quality investments — through fractionalization and smart contracts.

But for this, it will take much more than 'putting assets on the blockchain'. It will require building robust, auditable, interoperable infrastructure integrated with existing legal mechanisms.

The parallel with Bitcoin in 2013

Today, the RWA market resembles Bitcoin in 2013: much enthusiasm, little institutional adoption. There’s still a lack of secondary liquidity, transparent governance, and data standardization. What we see are the first experiments — some promising, others inflated.

But there is a consensus emerging: those who solve the bottlenecks of real tokenization — with verifiable data, real liquidity, and legal integration — will unlock a new financial cycle.

RWAs could be the missing link between crypto capital and the real economy. But for that, it will require more than smart contracts: real friction in credit, trust, and governance must be resolved.

Stablecoins: the new money is gaining scale

TOKEN2049 was the stage for a milestone that seemed distant until recently: a stablecoin — the USD1, launched by the Trump family — will be used as the main currency in a US$ 2 billion transaction for acquiring a stake in Binance, by a fund from the United Arab Emirates.

This announcement may have come with a media-savvy name and context, but what it symbolizes goes far beyond politics: stablecoins are moving from being a byproduct of DeFi to acting as the real capital infrastructure for institutional operations.

They are today the most mature link between the crypto system and the traditional market. Their growth is not just quantitative (the combined market cap has already exceeded US$ 150 billion) but qualitative:

• They have become stable stores of value for countries with chronic inflation.

• They are being used as rails for real-time global settlements.

• They are becoming an alternative to physical dollars and even to the banking system in crisis-stricken countries.

The use of USD1 in such a large acquisition marks the official entry of stablecoins into a new cycle: that of non-state sovereign means of payment.

It is an important transition: previously, money was issued by states and used through banks’ intermediation. Now, dollar-backed tokens circulate outside the traditional structure, with constant liquidity and increasing acceptance.

The future of monetary sovereignty

This movement raises strategic questions: if private digital currencies (like USD1) gain global traction, how will governments react? And how to deal with the narrative dispute — between the official dollar, the crypto-dollar, and future CBDCs?

On one hand, stablecoins offer efficiency, transparency, and global interoperability. On the other, they open a new geopolitical territory: who controls the contracts, the issuers, and the usage data of these currencies?

The truth is that we are facing a new type of asset: a “dollar with API,” programmable, accessible, and borderless. The transaction with USD1 is not just a political eccentricity. It is the real rehearsal of how businesses, treasuries, and international agreements can happen without central banks or clearinghouses.

It’s not about crypto versus the traditional system. It’s about building a new monetary base — more fluid, more connected, and increasingly less dependent on old pathways.

Jurisdiction: between macro chaos and regulatory fragmentation

If there is a common thread that crossed many talks at TOKEN2049 Dubai, it was this: the world is unstable — and cryptocurrencies are ceasing to be an alternative bet to becoming a space of resilience.

Dan Morehead, founder of Pantera Capital, compared the global economic system to a “snow globe being shaken”: rising debt, expansionary monetary policies, and a general loss of trust in traditional assets like stocks and bonds. In this scenario, the appeal of crypto goes beyond innovation — it becomes a matter of sovereignty, liquidity, and protection.

Decentralization — once seen as a technical experiment — is becoming a desirable characteristic from a macroeconomic perspective.

The paradox of crypto globalization

But as the sector matures, another challenge arises: the incompatibility between the global nature of crypto and the fragmentation of regulations.

Changpeng Zhao (CZ), founder of Binance, was direct in his speech:

“Many regulators still want to regulate everything locally — local custody, local order book, local team. Doing this in 200 different countries is unfeasible.”

He pointed out that the cost and complexity of implementing local solutions in each jurisdiction are a real obstacle. At the same time, he praised the United Arab Emirates for adopting a more consistent approach with the transnational nature of cryptocurrencies: pro-crypto, pro-business, and open to innovation.

Where do we go from here?

TOKEN2049 opened up this tension: while the macro pushes investors out of the traditional system, the micro (regulatory) still hinders the full integration of cryptocurrencies.

The path seems inevitable, but not linear. It will require:

• Regulatory cooperation between countries, creating minimally compatible standards.

• Neutral and auditable infrastructures, respecting local sovereignty without undermining global logic.

• Hybrid models, where the best of decentralization and compliance can coexist.

The challenge now is not to prove that crypto works. It’s to make it work globally, with legitimacy and scale.

The system is changing. The question is: are you ready to operate in it?

TOKEN2049 Dubai was not about the future of crypto — it was about the present of capital. Among RWAs trying to break the hype, stablecoins being used as sovereign instruments, and regulation still caught in borders, we saw clearly an uncomfortable truth: money has already changed. And those who operate within it need to understand the new map.

Tokenization is not just a tool — it’s a process of reconstruction. Of market, of trust, of liquidity. But there is still a lack of infrastructure, standardization, and interoperability for real assets to gain scale. Today, the promise still lags behind practice.

Stablecoins, on the other hand, have already advanced a step. They are no longer “potential use cases” — they are now functional currency for global trades. But with this advancement comes a new layer of dispute: who controls the tokens that now represent the dollar, value, power?

And in the background of all this, a question: how to regulate the unregulatable? Decentralization is global, but regulators remain local. The result? A paradox of jurisdictions, where companies must choose between innovation and legal viability.

None of this is theory. All of this is happening.

TOKEN2049 showed that the new economy no longer settles for rhetoric. It wants real rails, liquid assets, and fair ways to generate, capture, and move value. For those living off creation, operation, or investment, the message is clear: digital capital is already among us.

And perhaps, just perhaps, the most relevant companies of the next decade are being designed now — silently — in the background of this transition. Who knows, DUX might begin to explore these horizons sooner than many imagine.

With or without capital digitization, the flow for those who create remains blocked. And we exist to change that. If you live off creativity but need real liquidity to grow, talk to us.