In a groundbreaking development that is causing shockwaves in the RWA ecosystem, Yuanjie Zhang, one of the founders of Conflux and a key promoter within the ecosystem, publicly criticized the RWA analytics platform RWA.xyz. Zhang, also known as Forgivenever in the community, plays a vital role similar to Mert Mumtaz but for Conflux and RWAs.
This statement comes at a critical juncture for the RWA sector, which experienced a surge in institutional interest in 2024 and 2025.
In a detailed post on X written by Zhang in Chinese, the co-founder accused RWA.xyz of presenting biased data and selectively reporting on blockchain networks.
What were Zhang’s criticisms of RWA.xyz?
In his post, Forgivenever suggested that RWA.xyz has been avoiding showcasing the full extent of activities taking place on non-EVM compatible chains or those that are not part of the favored protocols in the West.
His allegations hint at the platform’s lack of impartiality and its influence on which projects and networks gain visibility as more institutional investors enter the space.
Zhang argued that by overlooking or downplaying the actual RWA volume on lesser-known or non-Western platforms like Conflux, RWA.xyz is skewing the perception of the global RWA market.
According to him, the platform’s new methodology, implemented after a recent revamp, prioritizes narratives over unfiltered on-chain data. He pointed out that this new approach fails to acknowledge the significant liquidity pools in the growing Asian market.
Prior to the revamp, RWA.xyz estimated the industry-wide RWA scale at $300 billion. However, after the redesign, this figure increased to $410 billion, with the introduction of two new metrics.
The Reported Asset Value, totaling $410 billion, covers assets tokenized as digital certificates on private or permissioned chains, even if they lack genuine on-chain transfers or widespread public distribution.
The Distributed Asset Value, valued at $18 billion, encompasses assets distributed through on-chain protocols of blockchains and exchanges, accessible to crypto investors who can hold them via wallets or custodians.
Zhang believes that the latter metric represents the true scale relevant to the crypto industry.
He claimed that the hyped $410 billion figure is 91% dominated by Canton’s private chain, which he labeled as the new “sugar daddy,” displacing Figure’s Provenance chain. Zhang insinuated that Figure previously influenced RWA.xyz and has now been overtaken by Canton since going public.
Zhang alleged that Figure manipulated data to inflate the actual $18 billion in RWA assets sold to investors to over $300 billion. Now, he claimed, Canton is engaging in similar practices, leading to its dominance in the Reported Asset Value.
He accused RWA.xyz of engaging in data manipulation, citing instances where Figure’s loans were used to boost numbers before being reclassified. Zhang implied that commercial motives are driving these inclusions.
According to him, excluding Figure’s inflated anomalies from the Distributed Asset Value results in a more accurate reference value.
Zhang alleged in his post that RWA.xyz has been deceiving US investors in the crypto and stock markets and is now targeting the Hong Kong market due to the booming RWA sector in Asia.
Are Zhang’s claims substantiated?
Zhang’s assertions were supported by his followers, who also noted discrepancies. When asked about accurate data aggregation platforms, one user suggested that most others are more reliable than RWA.xyz, which tends to exaggerate statistics.
Indeed, compared to RWA.xyz reporting a TVL exceeding $21 billion in tokenized treasuries and private credit, other major aggregators like DefiLlama show significant disparities. DefiLlama employs a permissionless indexing method and often displays higher figures for certain protocols, including data from chains not fully recognized by RWA.xyz.
When Figure co-founder Mike Cagney criticized DefiLlama for excluding Figure’s data, DefiLlama defended its decision by pointing out the lack of verifiable data and genuine on-chain evidence from Figure.
Meanwhile, RWA.xyz defended its methodology by claiming to standardize and verify first-party data for institutional-grade accuracy. However, critics like Zhang argue that this verification process essentially functions as a whitelist.
The discrepancy highlighted by Zhang is particularly evident in the Asian RWA market, where RWA.xyz appears to be dominated by US-based entities like Ondo and BUIDL, while activities on Eastern platforms like Conflux and various Hong Kong initiatives receive less visibility.
In response to the allegations, the co-founder and CEO of RWA.xyz published a blog discussing the new framework and expressed willingness to collaborate with Conflux upon receiving feedback.