New Ethereum standard aims to set baseline for real-world asset tokenization

A coalition of Web3 companies has introduced a new Ethereum token standard designed to streamline compliance and reduce fragmentation in the growing real-world asset (RWA) sector.

According to an announcement sent to Cointelegraph, the standard, ERC-7943, creates a minimal, modular interface designed to work across Ethereum layer-2s and Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chains, while remaining agnostic to implementation and vendor-specific infrastructure. This means it can work in any setup and isn’t locked into any specific company’s tools.

Dario Lo Buglio, the co-founder of Brickken and the author of the Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP)-7943, told Cointelegraph that the new standard acts as a “universal layer” that sits on top of any token type. This allows developers and institutions to avoid having to use wrappers and custom bridges while integrating tokenized assets into apps.

ERC-7943 is backed by a coalition of Web3 and fintech firms, including Bit2Me, Brickken, Compellio, Dekalabs, DigiShares, Hacken, Forte Protocol, FullyTokenized, RealEstate.Exchange, Stobox and Zoth.

Responding to a “perfect storm” of institutional interest

According to Lo Buglio, EIP-7943 is a direct response to developer frustration and a “perfect storm of institutional interest.”

Data from the RWA tracker RWA.xyz shows that the total value of tokenized RWAs onchain has reached $28.44 billion, up nearly 6% in the last 30 days. Meanwhile, stablecoins’ total stablecoin value and total asset holders are up nearly 7% and 9%, respectively.

The growth of RWAs shows that institutions are currently adopting RWAs at scale, with issuers competing for market share. Lo Buglio said this highlights the need for a new token standard that addresses the needs of developers and financial institutions alike.

“Financial institutions want programmable controls that match their compliance frameworks. Developers, on the other hand, are stuck rewriting custom logic for every RWA token,” Lo Buglio told Cointelegraph. “We needed a common foundation.”

Lo Buglio told Cointelegraph that the standard entered the review stage of the EIP process and has already received feedback from compliance professionals and other token standard authors.

“The EIP still stands on the review stage, which is where the main feedback will be proposed and incorporated.”

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Tackling fragmentation and enabling composability

Earlier efforts to standardize RWA tokenization on Ethereum include ERC-1400 and ERC-3643. ERC-1400 introduced a hybrid model blending features of fungible and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), with built-in compliance tools.

ERC-3643 focused on regulated assets like securities, integrating onchain identity and permission layers to enforce Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) requirements.

Lo Buglio said ERC-1400 aims to focus on separating logic from storage and said that ERC-3643 is strong for securities, but it’s tightly coupled to its own identity and permissioning stack. Unlike these solutions, he said, it differentiates itself by being a minimal, implementation-agnostic interface.

“EIP-7943 defines only what must exist — not how it’s built — so any project or protocol can slot it into their stack without friction,” Lo Buglio told Cointelegraph.

“Its primary goal is to solve the problem of industry fragmentation by providing a single, standardized set of functions for compliance.”

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