TL;DR
- Arbitrum DAO will invest 35 million ARB in RWAs to diversify its treasury and reduce volatility.
- The February 17 vote approved the proposal with 93% support, and the provider selection process will be open from February 20 to March 20.
- ARB is the third-largest network in on-chain RWAs, within a market valued at $17.3 billion.
Arbitrum DAO has approved a new investment of 35 million ARB in real-world assets (RWAs) to diversify its treasury and reduce exposure to crypto market volatility.
This decision marks the second phase of its Stable Treasury Endowment Program (STEP), which aims to incorporate stable and liquid assets with yields that are not correlated with cryptocurrency price movements.
Protection Against Fluctuations
The selection process for U.S. dollar-denominated RWA providers will be open from February 20 to March 20. A committee will review applications, and a project manager will make the final decision, subject to DAO approval. The proposal itself highlights the importance of investment over grants, as many established projects require more assets under management rather than direct funding.
The fluctuation of the ARB token has been a key factor in this strategy. Currently, it is trading at $0.45671, far from its all-time high of $2.15 reached in January 2024. Over the past day, it has recorded a slight increase of 0.5%. Treasury diversification aims to mitigate the effects of these variations and strengthen the stability of the Arbitrum ecosystem.
The investment proposal received 93% support in the February 17 vote, following a consultation process that began on January 27. Arbitrum had already executed a first 35 million ARB investment in April 2024 and allocated an additional 15 million ARB to RWAs as part of its treasury management strategy. To date, these initiatives have generated $450,000 in interest for the DAO.
Arbitrum Strengthens Its Position in the RWA Market
Within the blockchain ecosystem, Arbitrum ranks third in RWA ownership, behind Ethereum and ZKsync Era. In total, 110 issuers provide tokenized assets on-chain, within a market valued at $17.3 billion, with $8.8 billion locked in decentralized financial protocols. Most of these assets are private credit, followed by U.S. Treasurys and commodities
