$16 Billion in RWA Flows into Ethereum, Marking a Key Turning Point in the Battle Between Public and Private Blockchains

Gate News Report, March 20 — As on-chain data continues to accumulate, a phased conclusion has emerged in the debate between permissioned and permissionless blockchains. Data shows that approximately $16 billion worth of real-world assets (RWA) are deployed in a distributed manner on the Ethereum network, significantly ahead of public chains like BNB Chain and Solana.

Structurally, distributed assets allow investors to hold and transfer directly via wallets and access DeFi protocols for composability and lending, while representative assets are mainly used for recording and auditing, lacking liquidity. Although private network Canton records assets totaling $352 billion, these figures are primarily used for internal institutional ledgers and do not represent actual capital inflows.

Industry opinions are gradually converging. Experts like Cody Carbone, Matt Hougan, and Geoff Kendrick believe that, in the long term, permissionless public chain architectures have greater advantages, especially in terms of global liquidity, openness, and developer ecosystems. Even private chain projects like R3 are beginning to seek collaborations with public chains such as Solana to gain broader liquidity support.

Notably, while current mainstream RWA projects are deployed on public chains, many adopt permissioned access mechanisms, such as KYC and whitelist controls, creating a hybrid model of “open underlying layer + compliant entry.” For example, Aave Horizon’s RWA business accounts for only a small fraction of the overall protocol, and recent user activity and collateralization levels have declined, indicating that institutional participation is still in the exploratory stage.

Analysis suggests that although private chains have certain advantages in compliance and privacy, capital and applications are gradually shifting toward public chains. With technological advancements and improved compliance tools, the potential of permissionless blockchains in asset issuance and DeFi integration is further being unlocked.