Justin Sun's "Energy Bureau": Acquiring hydropower and investing in nuclear energy, is he betting on the future of RWA?

Justin.Sun 2025-11-11 09:09 81525人围观 TRX

-Foreword: From speculating in currencies to buying hydropower stations, Justin Sun's "counter-common sense" Turning to the late autumn of 2025, the total installed capacity of two buildings in western Norway reached 86 The megawatt hydropower station has

-Foreword: From speculating in currencies to buying hydropower stations, Justin Sun’s “counter-common sense” turn

In the late autumn of 2025, two hydropower stations with a total installed capacity of 86 MW in western Norway welcomed a special new owner - Justin Sun, founder of TRON. Different from the high-profile hype of NFT and Metaverse in the past, this time he acquired physical assets that can stably output electricity, generate clear bills, and calculate cash returns. The annual clean power output of approximately 400 million kilowatt hours constitutes clearly visible cash flow.

What deserves more attention is the systematic adjustment of his investment portfolio: in the past year, he spent US$100 million to promote the integration of AI and blockchain, and last month he invested in a nuclear energy start-up company. Coupled with the huge NVIDIA position held in market rumors, Sun Yuchen is quietly building a triangular layout of "energy-computing power-blockchain". While the crypto community is still immersed in discussions about the concept of “decentralization,” this controversial figure has turned his attention to the real-world infrastructure track.

This series of seemingly abrupt transformations seems to subtly echo the current explosive trend of real-world asset tokenization (RWA). The global RWA market size has exceeded US$300 billion in 2025, a surge of 224% from the beginning of 2024. A financial revolution connecting virtuality and reality is accelerating.

1. Dismantling Sun Yuchen’s layout: the underlying logic behind energy and computing power

1.1 Physical assets: Anchoring from concept to cash flow

Justin Sun’s acquisition of the Norwegian Hydropower Station may imply some strategic thinking around physical assets. This type of hydropower assets has distinctive characteristics: clear ownership, stable income, traceable operating data, and stable annual electricity revenue that naturally generates continuous cash flow—and these characteristics are highly consistent with the core requirements of "the underlying assets can be verified and the value can be quantified" required by RWA (Real World Asset Tokenization).

What’s even more interesting is its public prediction for 2024: “Humanity will enter an unprecedented era of power shortage, and computing power will be very hungry.” When the demand for NVIDIA GPU computing power explodes, energy has become the core bottleneck restricting the development of AI and blockchain. From the perspective of asset value anchoring, Sun Yuchen's deployment of energy at this time may be to seize control of the "basic means of production" in the digital economy era.

1.2 Technology synergy: Foreshadowing of the integration of AI and blockchain

A US$100 million bet on the integration of AI and blockchain may have technical implications behind this move. The core value of RWA lies in realizing the digital transfer of physical assets through blockchain, while AI can solve the problems of real-time collection, dynamic analysis and authenticity verification of asset data - the combination of the two is the key technical base for the digitization of physical assets.

Justin Sun's Tron Ecosystem launched the stUSDT protocol as early as 2023, achieving an initial link between stablecoins and some physical assets. This attempt may pave the way for subsequent larger-scale asset digitization. Coincidentally, the country's first AI server RWA project completed by Oridian and Ant Digital also uses AI technology to upload equipment operation data to ensure that revenue is transparent and verifiable. This overlap of technical paths makes people wonder whether Justin Sun's investment is paving the way for some kind of asset digitization scenario.

1.3 Forward-looking layout: a signal of long-termism in the nuclear energy track

The move to invest in nuclear energy start-up companies further demonstrates its long-term perspective. In July 2025, China Fusion Energy Co., Ltd. was officially listed with a registered capital of 15 billion yuan, marking the acceleration of the commercialization process of nuclear fusion. ； Sun Yuchen said bluntly as early as 2024: "If you miss Nvidia chips, you should pay attention to nuclear fusion." His judgment coincides with the layout direction of technology giants such as Sam Altman and Elon Musk.

From hydropower (stable short-term cash flow) to nuclear energy (long-term growth potential), Sun is building an energy portfolio that covers different cycles. If we compare the development path of the RWA market - from low-risk traditional physical assets to gradually extending to high-potential new energy and hard technology assets - this layout seems to be slightly consistent with the evolution trend of the industry.

2. The first year of RWA’s explosion: the underlying logic and hot practices of the 300 billion market

2.1 Surge in scale: from niche trend to mainstream choice

2025 has become recognized as the “year of explosion” in the RWA field. The global market size exceeded US$300 billion, an increase of 224% from the beginning of 2024, and U.S. Treasury bonds, private credit, and energy assets have become the three core categories. Among them, the scale of tokenized U.S. Treasury bonds reached US$7.3 billion, an increase of 85% during the year. BlackRock's BUIDL fund dominated the industry with a management scale of US$2.2 billion.

This outbreak is no accident: the Federal Reserve's interest rate adjustment has created a demand for "high liquidity + stable income" assets, the maturity of multi-chain infrastructure provides technical support for assets to be uploaded to the chain, and the European and American regulatory frameworks have gradually become clearer and reduced compliance risks. More importantly, the entry of traditional asset management giants such as BlackRock and Franklin Templeton has completely changed the market ecology of RWA, turning it from a niche game in the encryption circle to a mainstream financial allocation option.

2.2 Practical exploration from Wall Street to the Chinese market

The intensive implementation of landmark events in the RWA field in 2025 confirms the accelerated maturity of the industry and provides diverse reference samples for asset digitization:

The birth of RWA’s first stock: In September, Figure Technology, which focuses on the tokenization of private credit, was listed on Nasdaq, raising US$787 million and rising by more than 40% on the first day of listing. The RWA assets under its management reach US$10 billion, occupying 75% of the global private credit tokenization market, and have become a key bridge between traditional finance and blockchain.
Green assets on the chain: Zhonghuan New Energy cooperates with Ant Group to include green assets such as photovoltaic power stations and zero-carbon parks into the scope of tokenization. AntChain technology is used to realize real-time uploading of power generation data to the chain, while optimizing the operating efficiency of power stations through AI algorithms, and ultimately building a closed loop of "green physical assets - on-chain tokens - global capital". This model forms an interesting contrast with Sun Yuchen's energy layout direction.
Breakthrough in computing power assets: Oridian completed its first AI server RWA project, tokenizing computing power equipment worth tens of millions of yuan through the blockchain. Minsheng Securities pointed out in a relevant report that computing power assets with GPU as the core are in line with RWA's three characteristics of "sunrise industry attributes, stable income expectations, and active transaction demand" and are expected to become the market growth pole in the next stage.

2.3 Regulatory evolution: Compliance becomes core competitiveness

The rapid development of RWA is inseparable from the gradual improvement of the regulatory framework. The "Digital Asset Market Clarity Act" passed by the U.S. House of Representatives clearly classifies Bitcoin and Ethereum as "digital commodities", divides the regulatory responsibilities of the SEC and CFTC, and provides a basis for RWA asset classification and compliance operations. ； The EU MiCAR framework will officially take effect in 2025, requiring RWA issuers to establish local EU entities and accept third-party audits, while providing policy incentives for the tokenization of green energy assets.

In the Asian market, Hong Kong’s Stablecoin Ordinance officially came into effect in August, the world’s first RWA registration platform was simultaneously launched, and a cross-border settlement pilot for tokenized bonds was launched. Under this "regulation first" trend, compliance capabilities have become the core competitiveness of RWA platforms - for example, Kraken, with its Wyoming SPDI license, manages RWA assets of US$4.5 billion, far exceeding its peers that have not obtained compliance qualifications.

3. The core value of RWA: Reconstructing the connection between finance and entities

3.1 Efficiency revolution: reducing the frictional cost of asset circulation

In the traditional financial system, physical asset transactions generally suffer from cumbersome procedures, long cycles, and high thresholds. RWA achieved three key breakthroughs through blockchain technology: First, asset fragmentation and splitting, Franklin Templeton BENJI product lowered the private credit investment threshold to US$20, attracting a large number of retail investors to participate ； The second is round-the-clock trading. Ondo global market supports 24-hour uninterrupted redemption of 100+ US stock tokens, breaking the time limit of traditional exchanges. ； The third is automatic settlement of smart contracts. The Aave protocol has begun to accept some compliant RWA as collateral to achieve automatic liquidation of defaults.

Taking the private credit field as an example, under the traditional model, the financing cycle for small and medium-sized enterprises often takes 3-6 months, but Maple Finance uses RWA technology to shorten the process to within 72 hours. As of the third quarter of 2025, the platform has provided financing for enterprises of more than US$1.2 billion and paid investors more than US$92 million in interest. The essence of this efficiency improvement is to reconstruct the trust mechanism and circulation path of physical assets through the blockchain.

3.2 Value Reshaping: Digital Activation of Physical Assets

RWA is not a simple “asset on the chain”, but a deep activation of physical value through digital technology. As can be seen from the cooperation case between Zhonghuan New Energy and Ant Group, RWA can create triple value for real enterprises: opening up global financing channels through asset tokenization and reducing overseas financing costs ； Use AI technology to optimize operational data and improve asset return rates ； Convert carbon emission reductions into tradable tokens and create a second income curve. According to public data, the photovoltaic power stations it participated in tokenization reduced the light abandonment rate by 15% and increased the EBITDA profit margin by 8 percentage points.

For investors, RWA provides new asset allocation options. Assets such as private credit, infrastructure, and high-quality real estate that were inaccessible to ordinary investors in the past can now be easily allocated through low-threshold tokenized products. As of October 2025, there are more than 86,000 holders of the U.S. Treasury token nTBILL on the Plume platform, and 11,000 holders of the Tesla stock token TSLAx, confirming the strong demand for diversified asset allocation in the retail market.

3.3 Ecological integration: the two-way rush of DeFi and TradFi

RWA is becoming the key link between decentralized finance (DeFi) and traditional finance (TradFi). More than 30% of the supply of syrupUSDC tokens (anchored to private credit assets) issued by Maple Finance have been integrated into mainstream DeFi protocols such as Spark and Morpho, realizing the integration of traditional credit assets and the decentralized lending market. ； JAAA, the AAA-rated collateralized debt obligation (CLO) product launched by Centrifuge, directly enters the Aave mortgage pool, becoming an important channel for institutional funds to enter the DeFi ecosystem.

This integration gave birth to a new business model: Circle acquired the USYC (US Treasury Token) issuance capability through the acquisition of Hashnote, and integrated it with the interest-bearing stable currency USDC to form a "stable currency + RWA" product matrix； Nasdaq submitted a stock tokenization transaction proposal in September 2025, planning to achieve "T+0" settlement of traditional stocks and break the existing transaction efficiency bottleneck. The combination of the compliance of traditional finance and the flexibility of DeFi is building a new more inclusive financial ecosystem.

4. Challenges and Controversies: The Real Dilemma of RWA

4.1 Asset authenticity: blind spots of trust that cannot be fully covered by technology

The core cornerstone of RWA is the authenticity of the underlying physical assets, but blockchain technology cannot completely solve the problem of "off-chain asset fraud". In 2024, the Securitize platform was fined US$12 million by the SEC for failing to fully verify the authenticity of the underlying credit assets, which exposed common pain points in the industry. Although projects such as Orred collect real-time data through Internet of Things devices and Ant Chain uses privacy computing technology to ensure data credibility, risks such as equipment tampering, data fraud, and repeated asset mortgages still exist.

Solving this problem requires the double guarantee of "technology + system". The "Technical Specifications for Trusted Uplinking of Trusted Blockchain Physical Assets" jointly released by China Academy of Information and Communications Technology and Ant Digital in 2025 clarified for the first time the full process framework of "source data collection - intermediate process certificate storage - terminal value verification" for physical assets on the chain, requiring double cross-verification of device source data and enterprise business data, providing a standard paradigm for the industry to refer to.

4.2 Regulatory fragmentation: The problem of global rules coordination needs to be solved

The current RWA supervision shows obvious "geographical segmentation" characteristics: the United States adopts a "classified supervision" model to divide the responsibilities of the SEC and CFTC according to asset types.； The EU emphasizes "entity access" and requires RWA issuers to establish local EU entities ； Hong Kong focuses on "cross-border settlement" and focuses on promoting the cross-border circulation of tokenized bonds ； The mainland has strict restrictions on token issuance and only allows compliance agencies to carry out asset digitization pilots.

This regulatory difference causes cross-border RWA projects to meet multiple compliance requirements, significantly increasing operating costs. For example, although Binance US's stablecoin trading volume accounts for 30% of the US market, it has not been able to carry out related business because it cannot meet the differentiated regulatory requirements for RWA assets in each state. The "Global RWA Supervision Coordination Report" released by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in 2025 calls for the establishment of a global coordination mechanism covering asset classification, cross-border settlement, and tax treatment. Currently, 12 countries have joined the pilot discussion.

4.3 Market fluctuations: the problem of balancing physical attributes and financial attributes

Although anchored to real assets, RWA is still unable to completely avoid the impact of financial market fluctuations. When the Federal Reserve raised interest rates in March 2025, the price of tokenized U.S. Treasury bonds experienced a short-term fluctuation of 7%, far exceeding the 3% fluctuation of the traditional Treasury market. This is due to the "dual attributes" of RWA: it is affected by both the returns on the underlying physical assets and the impact of the liquidity of the crypto market - when there is a flight of funds in the crypto market, RWA products may experience price deviations due to concentrated redemptions by investors.

At present, the industry has not yet established a mature risk hedging mechanism. Most RWA platforms only control risks through "diversified asset allocation + setting over-collateralization ratio", but lack special hedging tools for crypto market fluctuations. However, the situation is improving. CME Group has planned to launch tokenized U.S. Treasury bond futures products in the first quarter of 2026 to help investors hedge the risk of price fluctuations through derivatives instruments.

5. Future trends: How will RWA reshape the financial landscape?

5.1 Asset diversification: penetration into all categories from financial assets to entities

RWA is extending from financial assets to the real field. Data in 2025 shows that the proportion of non-financial entity assets such as energy, real estate, and computing power in the RWA market has increased to 35%. Among them, the annual growth rate of new energy asset tokenization has reached 120%, far exceeding the 58% growth rate of traditional financial assets. The industry generally predicts that more categories such as agricultural land, intellectual property rights, carbon emission rights, and artwork will enter the RWA market in 2026, forming a "full asset coverage" pattern.

Technological breakthroughs will accelerate this process. Zero-knowledge proof (ZK) technology solves the contradiction between asset privacy protection and compliance verification. The Tradable platform has introduced institutional-level private credit assets through the ZKsync Era network to achieve the dual goals of "data confidentiality + compliance auditing" ； Internet of Things (IoT) technology enables real-time monitoring of the status of physical assets. Xunying Travel successfully completed tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars in asset tokenization financing by uploading the operational data of 4,000 power swap cabinets to the blockchain.

5.2 Institutional leadership: transformation from retail driven to professional market

The RWA market is gradually shifting from being driven by retail investors to being dominated by institutional investors. In the first half of 2025, institutional investors contributed 72% of RWA trading volume, and traditional financial giants such as BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, and Bank of New York Mellon continued to increase their investment. Goldman Sachs and Bank of New York Mellon jointly launched a "mirror tokenized money market fund", planning to achieve 24/7 real-time trading of traditional money funds ； The stock tokenization proposal submitted by Nasdaq marks the beginning of traditional capital markets actively embracing RWA.

This shift will significantly increase market maturity. The participation of institutional investors has brought about stricter risk control standards and a more standardized information disclosure mechanism, pushing RWA from "the subject of speculation in the encryption circle" to "mainstream asset allocation". According to the Boston Consulting Group's forecast, by 2030, the proportion of RWA held by institutional investors will exceed 90%, and the market will enter a mature stage where "professional institutions lead and retail investors follow."

5.3 Technology integration: Deep empowerment of AI + blockchain

The deep integration of AI and blockchain will become the core technology engine for the development of RWA. AI can not only optimize the pricing model of RWA assets, but also achieve real-time early warning of risks - for example, Ant Group's energy AI algorithm can predict the power generation of photovoltaic power stations by analyzing meteorological data and equipment status, with a prediction accuracy of 92%, providing accurate data support for asset valuation. ； Blockchain ensures that data cannot be tampered with and is traceable, ensuring the credibility of AI analysis results.

This technological synergy is giving rise to new application scenarios. In the field of supply chain finance, AI verifies the authenticity of transaction documents through image recognition technology, and blockchain enables real-time circulation of accounts receivable. ； In the field of green finance, AI accounts for corporate carbon emissions, and blockchain ensures trusted transactions and traceability of carbon assets. The superimposed effect of technology will further unleash the potential of RWA to empower the real economy.

Epilogue: RWA is not the end, but a new starting point for value reconstruction

Justin Sun's shift from currency speculation to the deployment of hydropower stations and nuclear energy, if placed against the backdrop of the crypto industry moving closer to entities, may reflect a change in industry trends - a return from "conceptual hype" to "value anchoring". When the US$300 billion RWA market rises, and when institutions such as BlackRock and Ant Group enter the market, a clear signal has emerged: the long-term value of blockchain may not lie in creating virtual bubbles that are divorced from reality, but in reconstructing the circulation efficiency of physical assets through technology.

The true significance of RWA is to open up the value channel between virtual and reality, so that financial services can more accurately empower real industries. From hydropower stations in Norway to AI servers, from nuclear fusion technology to carbon assets, these physical assets that are included in the digital vision are building a new value base in the digital economy era.

Controversies will still accompany the development of RWA, and problems such as asset authenticity, regulatory coordination, and risk hedging will still take time to resolve. However, it is undeniable that this revolution connecting finance and entities has already begun. As Justin Sun said when asked about the layout logic after acquiring the Norwegian Hydropower Station: "The value of the future is not in the virtual code, but in the real power that drives the world." This sentence may also provide a perspective on the development direction of RWA.

Disclaimer: The content of this article is for general information only and does not constitute any investment advice, recommendation or decision-making basis. It is recommended that you consult professional advisors for any investment decisions based on this article and related legal, business, tax and other matters. Some of the information in this article comes from third parties, and the views are solely the author's personal opinions. If the content is inadvertently offensive, please contact us to make adjustments. Thank you for your understanding and tolerance.

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