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There are some pretty weird things being brought on-chain nowadays.



Real-world-asset (RWA) tokenization is one of the hottest topics in crypto as industry participants eye the impending bull run. With how rapidly the RWA market is growing, now is the opportune time for crypto enthusiasts to begin exploring the topic.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1183" height="638" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/image-1.png" alt="" class="wp-image-75219" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/image-1.png?w=1183 1183w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/image-1.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/image-1.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/image-1.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/image-1.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/image-1.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/image-1.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/image-1.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1183px) 100vw, 1183px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The value of RWAs on-chain crossed $3 billion in August | Source: <a href="https://x.com/glxyresearch/status/1697617833075568977?s=20">Galaxy Research</a></figcaption></figure>



RWA tokenization brings crypto into the real world, drastically expanding crypto utility across various use cases, the most prominent of which are financial assets, including precious metals and real estate.



Outliers are currently being tokenized as well. This article explores some of the strangest.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">From NFTs to glasses clinking&nbsp;</h2>



Fine wine and spirits producers seek three key insights to connect with customers better: buyer identity, current owner, and consumption history. That’s according to <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamie-ritchie-8a289214?original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F">Jamie Ritchie</a>, former worldwide chair of wines and spirits at Sotheby’s, who left the auction house to join <a href="https://blockbar.com/">BlockBar</a> in the Web3 industry.&nbsp;



Through BlockBar&#8217;s blockchain marketplace, fine alcohol producers can now sell directly to clients, eliminating middlemen.



Here’s how it works.



Every bottle is tokenized with an NFT issued to the purchaser. The bottle is stored in a fully insured, temperature-controlled environment until clients decide they want it. When they do, they trade in the NFT and BlockBar transports the bottle.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
“The distribution model of wines and spirits, particularly at the higher end, isn’t working well. The bottles aren’t getting to the right people – the people who appreciate them – before they go through too many different steps. It’s better to reduce those steps. Let’s say you’re consuming 10 [bottles a year], and I’m consuming none, but I’m the one buying from the producer – where does the producer want to focus their efforts? If we can give them that information, which blockchain enables, they’re going to be happy.”
<cite>— Jamie Ritchie, COO of BlockBar</cite></blockquote>



Tokenization plays a crucial role in ensuring authenticity as well.



Sotheby&#8217;s rare bottle auctions require stringent authenticity checks to combat forgers, but the risk of counterfeit or tampered bottles increases the more times bottles change hands. Bottles could also have been kept in suboptimal conditions. 



With BlockBar, bottles move directly from the producer to storage, guaranteeing authenticity so long as they remain stored. While stored, owners can sell or gift bottles via the NFT. The NFT&#8217;s journey is recorded on the blockchain, offering producers valuable insights into bottle consumption.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Tokenization transforms nuclear and solar energy</h2>



Currently, about <a href="https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/current-and-future-generation/plans-for-new-reactors-worldwide.aspx">440 nuclear reactors supply 10% of global electricity</a>, with 60 more under construction.



While nuclear power is seen as the future of clean energy, uranium trading has traditionally been opaque due to safety concerns and trade restrictions.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="750" height="520" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/image.png" alt="" class="wp-image-75218" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/image.png?w=750 750w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/image.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/image.png?w=371 371w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/image.png?w=376 376w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/image.png?w=316 316w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/image.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Historical price of uranium | Source: <a href="https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/uranium">Trading Economics</a></figcaption></figure>



Typically, uranium attracts buyers like utility companies, governments, and trading houses, with retail investors being left out of the equation. $U, a uranium-backed fungible token from <a href="https://twitter.com/Uranium3o8">Uranium3o8</a>, aims to change that.&nbsp;



“Other than buying uranium directly from a miner like Madison on a sales contract basis, the only other way ‘Joe Retail’ could play in uranium as a commodity was through either a participation agreement or through the purchase of futures.” Duane Parnham, CEO of Madison Metals



The initiative is being supported by <a href="https://www.juniorminingnetwork.com/junior-miner-news/press-releases/3155-cse/gren/148046-uranium3o8-tokenizes-uranium-to-democratize-commodity-access-and-ownership.html#:~:text=Uranium3o8%20is%20now%20possible%20due,Madison%20and%20Sanmiguel%20Capital%20Investment">Madison Metals Inc.</a>, a leading mining firm with several decades of experience.



Uranium isn’t the only renewable energy source being tokenized; through the efforts of companies like <a href="https://auroralabs.dev/">Aurora Labs</a>, solar energy is also being brought into this new reality.



Instead of tokenizing the energy itself, Aurora’s technology is being used by <a href="https://www.powergold.tech/#presale">PowerGold</a>, an Enpower affiliate specializing in green energy investments, to tokenize their energy company. The move offers an investment opportunity (currently in the private sales stage) that was once exclusive to institutions and high-net-worth individuals. This innovative approach aligns people&#8217;s actions with their sustainability goals, democratizing access to green energy investments.&nbsp;



Leveraging, <a href="https://auroracloud.dev/?utm_source=blockworks&amp;utm_medium=pr&amp;utm_campaign=cloud_launch">Aurora Cloud</a>, PowerGold was able to tackle the regulatory challenges associated with its token sale and successfully achieved its objective of facilitating seamless ENP token transactions within a secure and compliant network. PowerGold is poised to revolutionize the renewable energy investment sector, with a strong emphasis on transparency, compliance, and, most importantly, accessibility—all made possible with the support of Aurora Cloud.



Tokenizing the energy company itself, as exemplified by Aurora and PowerGold, offers a new paradigm in the renewable energy industry. It enables individuals to invest in sustainable energy ventures, contributing to a more environmentally conscious future. This transformative approach, in combination with other efforts and innovations related to Solar tokenization, is set to reduce energy costs, enhance availability, and evolve supply chains to better manage energy surpluses, among other pivotal aspects of the energy landscape.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Breaking boundaries through tangible assets</h2>



Crypto’s expansion outside of the typical DeFi utilities that the industry has grown accustomed to marks the start of an impactful new era.



Whether real estate, diamonds, or crazy assets like booze, solar companies and energy, and uranium, crypto has an abundance of opportunities ahead of it through RWA tokenization. It’s a play that brings crypto from URL to IRL, with the power to rapidly accelerate adoption by touching the lives of millions globally.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



This content is sponsored by <a href="https://auroralabs.dev/">Aurora Labs</a>.



The RWA crypto movement is exactly what Aurora is bringing value to through Aurora Cloud, a fully integrated suite of blockchain products aimed to help businesses leverage the power of blockchain. Over 260 applications are already benefiting from the Aurora network, with use cases in supply chain management, gaming, customer loyalty programs, and much more.



<a href="https://auroracloud.dev/?utm_source=blockworks&amp;utm_medium=pr&amp;utm_campaign=cloud_launch">Learn more about Aurora Cloud</a>.



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Aurora

Uranium, booze and blockchain

Tiago Varzim

<div id="highlights-block_629fb10800a8f" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>No user funds were lost or stolen before the loophole was discovered</li>
 <li>Up to $200 million worth of Aurora users’ funds could have been hacked if this bug wasn’t fixed</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



It was almost the next market-moving DeFi hack.&nbsp;



Aurora, an Ethereum Virtual machine built on the NEAR Protocol, recently paid a $6 million reward to a so-called white hat hacker for identifying a key bug. 



The hacker, known as pwning.eth, uncovered in April a critical vulnerability in Aurora’s system, which could have jeopardized up to $200 million of funds. Virtual machines power smart contracts, or transactions executed in code on the blockchain without intermediaries, on Ethereum. Aurora paid the bounty through the Immunefi platform. 



It marks one of the largest-ever known bounty payouts in DeFi (decentralized finance) history. Last month, crypto bridge Wormhole — which connects different blockchains — <a href="https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/148085/wormhole-announces-10-million-bug-bounty-payout" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">paid</a> $10 million to an ethical security hacker that also discovered a bug through Immunefi’s platform.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“Such a vulnerability should have been discovered at an earlier stage of the [defense] pipeline and we have already started improving our methods to achieve that in the future,” Frank Braun, Aurora’s head of security, said in a statement Tuesday. </blockquote>



Added Braun: “However this event ultimately proves that our security mechanisms work.”



The bug was initially flagged via Immunefi — crucially, before any funds were stolen. <a href="https://immunefi.com/bounty/aurora/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Aurora&#8217;s bounty program</a> with Immunefi was launched in April 2022, with rewards ranging from $1,000 to $6 million, depending on severity. 



Jonah Michaels, a spokesperson for Immunefi, told Blockworks that at “a time of distrust in the markets, it’s important more than ever for Web3 projects to show that they take security seriously.”



On Immunefi’s platform, security researchers review code and disclose vulnerabilities. Through its programs with DeFi projects, Immunefi said it paid over $40 million in bounties to friendly hackers — claiming to have prevented over $20 billion in potential damages.



Aurora’s goal is to provide application developers the means to operate on Ethereum-compatible platforms under the governance of the decentralized Aurora DAO. Aurora’s scaling solution is currently responsible for $373 million of NEAR’s $786 million in total value locked, <a href="https://defillama.com/chain/Aurora?currency=USD" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according to data provider DefiLlama</a>.



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$6M Bounty Paid to White Hat Hacker Likely Averts Sizable DeFi Hack

Casey Wagner

<div id="highlights-block_624dc87784979" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>NEAR protocol announced its second fundraise since January</li>
 <li>The capital will be used to expand regional hubs around the world, the protocol said</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Blockchain project NEAR Protocol has announced the close of another funding round.



Just three months after its <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/near-token-spikes-after-protocol-raises-150m-led-by-three-arrows-capital/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$150 million raise</a>, NEAR announced an additional $350 million capital raise Wednesday, bringing its market cap to more than <a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/near" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$10 billion</a> as of Wednesday.



The funding round, led by Tiger Global, will be put toward growing regional hubs in key community centers across the globe, according to a statement.



“NEAR is poised to be a leading smart contract blockchain platform, combining first-rate technology with a fast-growing developer ecosystem,” partner at Tiger Global John Curtius said in a statement.



The protocol has established communities in Asia, Africa and Europe, and it aims to expand support in emerging communities in Latin America, Turkey and India, the company said.



Since its mainnet launch in late 2020, the NEAR network has processed over 70 million transactions and supported over 2.3 million accounts. Its Ethereum-compatible <a href="https://aurora.dev/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Aurora</a> scaling solution is responsible for $800 million of Near’s $1.1 billion in total value locked (TVL), <a href="https://defillama.com/chain/Aurora" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according to DefiLlama</a>.



After its January raise, the protocol’s native token, NEAR, jumped nearly 10% to trade just under $20 before falling to around $15 in recent weeks. It was trading down about 3% Wednesday afternoon.



NEAR, which seeks to rival layer-1 protocols including Solana and Ethereum and claims to be the first truly <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sharding.asp" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sharded</a> network in the world, also recently <a href="https://near.org/blog/near-in-march-unchain-fund-sailgp-and-daos/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a> a series of decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) partnerships, including being selected by Orange DAO as its preferred layer-1 blockchain for Web3.



“We are thrilled to have been selected by some of the brightest minds in the world as the preferred layer-1 chain on which Orange DAO members will want to build,” Marieke Flament, CEO of the NEAR Foundation, said in a statement. “We know that community-driven innovation benefits everyone, and this partnership is simply another example of our mission in practice.”



Illia Polosukhin, NEAR’s Ukrainian co-founder, is also a key player in the cryptocurrency community working to help efforts in Ukraine. He has helped evacuate at least 50 people out of Ukraine and raised more than $3 million, according to a <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-09/ukraine-s-crypto-community-sends-donation-support-after-russia-invasion" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bloomberg</a> report.



Other investors in the latest round include FTX Ventures, Dragonfly Capital and Blockchain Ventures.



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NEAR Raises $350M To Bring Market Cap Over $10B

Jacquelyn Melinek

In the third quarter of 2021, funding for blockchain companies <a href="https://www.blockdata.tech/blog/general/blockchain-companies-see-its-biggest-quarter-in-venture-funding-ever">hit all-time highs</a> of $6.586 billion, which is almost double the $3.8 billion raised in total during 2020. As the funding world is in its final and fourth quarter of 2021, capital continues to flow into the crypto space.&nbsp;



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Tala rolls out crypto solutions with $145M raise</h3>



Global technology company Tala raised $145 million in a Series E round to rollout its mobile-based account services and crypto solutions for emerging markets, it said on Thursday.&nbsp;



This capital raise brings the company’s total funding to more than $350 million. The investment round was led by Upstart with participation from Stellar Development Foundation, Kindred Ventures and the J. Safra Group. Existing investors in the round include IVP, Revolution Growth and Lowercase Capital. 



About two billion people internationally have limited access to financial services and are unbanked, according to a Global Findex <a href="https://globalfindex.worldbank.org/sites/globalfindex/files/chapters/2017%20Findex%20full%20report_chapter2.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a>. Tala focuses on providing financial account products to provide customers tools to borrow, save and manage money through its app, Shivani Siroya, founder and CEO of Tala, said to Blockworks.&nbsp;



The app has about 12,000 new users daily and has originated over $2.7 billion in credit to its six million customers across Kenya, the Philippines, Mexico and India since its launch in 2014, Siroya said.&nbsp;



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“We’re always going to pursue a new technology if we think it can help our mission, and our view is that cryptocurrencies and the blockchain have the potential to advance financial inclusion globally,” Siroya said. “The markets where Tala operates are some of the earliest and fastest adopters and we owe it to our customers to explore these solutions as part of the Tala account offering and deliver on the promise of the crypto economy,” she added.&nbsp;</blockquote>



By using the Stellar network, Tala users will be able to use stablecoins like Stellar USDC and other digital currencies, Denelle Dixon, CEO and Executive Director of the Stellar Development Foundation, told Blockworks.&nbsp;



In the future, Tala hopes to engage further in the explosion of innovation in DeFi by providing customers more inclusive financial products, Siroya said.&nbsp;



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Aurora Raises $12 million</h3>



<a href="https://aurora.dev/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Aurora</a>, an Ethereum virtual machine built on the NEAR Protocol, has raised $12 million in a funding round with participation from investors including Pantera Capital and Electric Capital.&nbsp;



Ethereum ecosystem projects, including Zero Knowledge Validation, Global Coin Ventures, imToken, Chronicle and others took part in the funding round. This was the company’s first fundraise.



“The main point of the fundraise was not in collecting money, but rather build the early ecosystem of the project,” Alex Shevchenko, Aurora Labs CEO said to Blockworks. “That&#8217;s why we have more than 100 investors in this round,” he added.&nbsp;



Aurora’s development team became a separate entity from NEAR Protocol in July 2021.&nbsp;



According to its website, the company aims to provide application developers the ability to operate on Ethereum-compatible platforms and is governed by a decentralized Aurora DAO. Aurora aims to bridge the gaps between blockchains, developers and users, Shevchenko said in a statement.&nbsp;



The company plans to use the capital to improve its cross-chain functionality and offer a multi-chain space that provides users more accessibility and adds new developers.



This story was updated on October 14, 2021 at 4:40 pm ET.