[Digital Today reporter Jinju Hong (홍진주)] An analysis says real-world assets (RWA) could emerge as a new pillar of liquidity for the next bull market as major channels of capital inflows that have supported the cryptocurrency market gradually lose strength.

On Sept. 3 local time, blockchain media outlet Coin Post reported that crypto market maker Wintermute said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, the day before that the capital inflow routes that led past bull markets are entering an exhaustion phase, and it pointed to RWA growth potential.

Wintermute said the crypto market's capital inflow routes have changed with each bull market. Early on, initial coin offerings (ICOs) and venture capital (VC) funding led the new token market. Later, stablecoins supplied liquidity to DeFi and altcoin markets. More recently, spot bitcoin ETFs and listed companies' crypto holding strategies supported gains in major digital assets.

Wintermute said the influence of those funding sources is weakening compared with the past. Inflow 규모 expanded to 12 percent of total market capitalisation during the 2021 bull market, but fell to 10 percent in 2025 and dropped to 2.4 percent at a recent low. Bitcoin ETF flows have turned to net outflows. Many stocks linked to companies' crypto treasury strategies also trade below net asset value (NAV). Stablecoin supply also recorded its largest contraction since the Terra collapse.

Wintermute identified RWA as a candidate to fill that gap. RWA refers to issuing and trading traditional real-world assets such as government bonds, real estate and stocks as blockchain-based tokens. Wintermute said about 16 billion dollars flowed into RWA over the past 12 months. It added that the value of tokenised assets circulating on-chain roughly tripled in a year to expand to the 30 billion-dollar range.

It also said RWA's potential stands out in terms of growth speed. Wintermute compared the time it took major past inflow routes to reach a peak. ETFs peaked 20 months after launch, stablecoins in 33 months and ICO and VC funding in 54 months. By contrast, RWA is only about 18 months into its current growth process.

RWA inflows currently amount to about 0.9 percent of total cryptocurrency market capitalisation. Wintermute said the scale is still smaller than existing inflow routes, but it is expanding faster than corporate treasury strategies at the same stage of growth.

Wintermute said the regulatory environment and expanding real-world use cases are driving RWA market growth. As market structure and tokenisation-related systems are put in place, participation becomes possible for institutions and a range of investors. Tokenised government bonds and investment trusts have also begun to be used as collateral assets on some major exchanges and in the DeFi ecosystem. Wintermute said this means RWA is developing beyond a simple means of temporarily parking funds into an asset used in real financial activity.

It said the way funds flow into the market also differs from existing routes. ICO and VC funding was concentrated in new tokens, stablecoins in DeFi and altcoins, and ETF and corporate treasury-strategy money in major cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.

By contrast, RWA tokenises traditional financial assets themselves, such as Apple shares or a government bond fund, and brings them on-chain. Wintermute said this expands the foundation for assets entering the blockchain ecosystem to later move into other cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin or altcoins.

Wintermute said a key variable will be how quickly RWA expands into real collateral and the DeFi area. It said there have been signs over the past two weeks of a partial recovery in inflows through ETFs and stablecoin issuance, but those still fall short of past peak levels.

The market is focusing on whether existing liquidity routes will revive, and whether RWA can establish itself as a new funding source leading the next cryptocurrency bull market.