{"id":77074,"date":"2026-08-20T23:27:36","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T23:27:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/arks-valente-sees-rwa-trading-reshaping-defi-platform-economics\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T23:27:36","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T23:27:36","slug":"arks-valente-sees-rwa-trading-reshaping-defi-platform-economics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/arks-valente-sees-rwa-trading-reshaping-defi-platform-economics\/","title":{"rendered":"ARK&#8217;s Valente Sees RWA Trading Reshaping DeFi Platform Economics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>(Originally posted on : Bitcoin News )<\/b><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"@container mb-[25px] rounded-sm overflow-clip py-0.5 pr-0.5 pl-2.5 bg-success-100\">\n<div class=\"flex flex-col gap-m overflow-clip rounded-[6px] !bg-success-10 p-3 @[420px]:p-m\">\n<h2 class=\"m-0 flex items-center gap-s text-[19px] !text-[#1c1c1c] md:text-[20px]\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"16\" height=\"10\" viewbox=\"0 0 16 10\" fill=\"none\" class=\"shrink-0 text-success-100\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><path d=\"M1 1.5h14\" stroke=\"currentColor\" stroke-width=\"2.5\" stroke-linecap=\"round\"\/><path d=\"M1 8.5h10\" stroke=\"currentColor\" stroke-width=\"2.5\" stroke-linecap=\"round\"\/><\/svg><span>Key Takeaways<\/span><\/h2>\n<ul class=\"m-0 flex list-none flex-col gap-m pl-0\">\n<li class=\"m-0 flex items-start gap-s !text-[#434248]\"><span class=\"mt-2 size-2 shrink-0 rounded-full bg-success-100\" aria-hidden=\"true\"\/><span class=\"text-body\">Specialized RWA venues could reduce the importance of major crypto pairs for venue success.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"m-0 flex items-start gap-s !text-[#434248]\"><span class=\"mt-2 size-2 shrink-0 rounded-full bg-success-100\" aria-hidden=\"true\"\/><span class=\"text-body\">Control of users and order flow may give applications fee leverage.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"m-0 flex items-start gap-s !text-[#434248]\"><span class=\"mt-2 size-2 shrink-0 rounded-full bg-success-100\" aria-hidden=\"true\"\/><span class=\"text-body\">Most popular applications are expected to continue relying on shared infrastructure.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Specialized RWA Venues Could Reshape Onchain Liquidity<\/h2>\n<p>Real-world asset (RWA) growth is changing how trading venues compete for liquidity and economic influence across decentralized finance (DeFi). In comments provided exclusively to Bitcoin.com News, ARK Invest Director of Research for Digital Assets Lorenzo Valente examined whether expanding RWA-linked derivatives markets will remain concentrated on crypto-native trading venues.<\/p>\n<p>Winning crypto trading historically required bitcoin and major layer-1 liquidity, which attracted professional traders and supported deeper markets. New platforms consequently faced direct competition from established exchanges such as Binance and Coinbase.<\/p>\n<p>Valente summarized the competitive change facing emerging onchain venues and established cryptocurrency exchanges:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cYou can now build large onchain outcomes and primitives with essentially zero BTC\/ETH market share by specializing in RWAs instead.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>He pointed to Trade.xyz as the clearest example and <a href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/robinhood-chain-surges-l2-posts-more-than-3-billion-in-dex-volume-with-7-million-daily-transfers\/\">Robinhood chain<\/a> as another possibility. Rather than concentrating alongside crypto-native activity, RWA liquidity could \u201cfragment by asset class,\u201d allowing different venues to lead separate categories, he explained.<\/p>\n<p>Those remarks followed a July 23 post on X, where he wrote, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/LorenzoARK\/status\/2080351645796614297\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">We are entering a new era for DeFi<\/a>.\u201d The post referenced Blockworks data showing RWAs accounted for 54% of Hyperliquid\u2019s weekly volume, surpassing cryptocurrencies for the first time.<\/p>\n<p>Within that breakdown, individual equities made up 61% of RWA activity after overtaking indices and commodities in June on Hyperliquid\u2019s HIP-3 builder-deployed perpetual markets. Across decentralized exchanges, total perpetual volume reached $79 billion for the week, with $50 billion on Hyperliquid, including $26 billion from HIP-3 perpetuals linked to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bitcoin.com\/get-started\/defi-and-web3\/real-world-assets\/what-are-real-world-assets-rwa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">real-world assets<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Order Flow Could Give Trade.xyz Greater Fee Leverage<\/h2>\n<p>Continued growth by Trade.xyz could change its commercial relationship with Hyperliquid if the application becomes the exchange\u2019s primary source of activity.<\/p>\n<p>Fee allocation creates tension at several levels of the blockchain stack. Market participants must determine <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ark-invest.com\/crypto-reports\/defi-quarterly-q1-2026\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">how value is divided between L2 and L1 networks<\/a>, applications and host chains, and brokers or builder code and primary exchanges.<\/p>\n<p>Valente addressed the effect concentrated order flow could have on the economic relationship between Trade.xyz and Hyperliquid:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cIf trade.xyz grows to 90% of Hyperliquid volume, which I see as very possible, I don\u2019t see why they wouldn\u2019t demand a larger share of the overall user fee.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Although Valente noted that \u201cleaving Hyperliquid entirely is a separate question,\u201d he anticipates negotiations over the economics once the application gains sufficient influence.<\/p>\n<h2>Independent Chains Are Likely to Suit Only a Minority of Apps<\/h2>\n<p>Pump.fun presents the same fee-allocation tension between an application and its underlying infrastructure. Valente views customer acquisition as the platform\u2019s current priority and considers a Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) fork an unnecessary distraction while the existing model continues producing <a href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/pump-fun-burns-370-million-pump-tokens-revenue-buyback\/\">more than $1 billion in lifetime revenue<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Operating an independent network would <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ark-invest.com\/articles\/analyst-research\/defi-is-following-the-saas-and-fintech-playbooks\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">increase control over execution, fees, and product design<\/a>, he described. It would also require additional engineering resources and expose the application to migration risks that do not exist while it remains integrated with Solana.<\/p>\n<p>Valente framed the decision around \u201cwhat is the app\u2019s opportunity cost\u201d and \u201chow easily can it fork the infra without losing its users?\u201d User retention ultimately determines whether technical independence remains commercially viable.<\/p>\n<p>The ARK Invest research director outlined the threshold an application would need to cross before operating its own chain:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cThe most popular apps launching their own chains is one possible answer, but it only makes sense once an app\u2019s fee bill exceeds the value of the liquidity, users, and security it\u2019s renting. Some will get there, most won\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The broader debate, which Valente calls \u201cthe million dollar question for the industry,\u201d centers on L1 monetization power, the durability of network effects, and whether applications are paying the right price for blockspace and distribution.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/interview\/arks-valente-sees-rwa-trading-reshaping-defi-platform-economics\/\">Source link <\/a><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Originally posted on : Bitcoin News ) Key Takeaways Specialized RWA venues could reduce the importance of major crypto pairs for venue success. Control of users and order flow may give applications fee leverage. Most popular applications are expected to continue relying on shared infrastructure. Specialized RWA Venues Could Reshape Onchain Liquidity Real-world asset (RWA) [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":77075,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77074"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}