[RFP] - Bringing Real-World Assets (RWAs) onto Gnosis

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Introduction

The first major use case of blockchain is tokenizing real-world assets (RWAs). Although this idea has been discussed for the last 6–8 years, there are still only a handful of RWAs on-chain. Many projects have tried blockchain in various domains, and the most natural fit has been finance. Yet while DeFi—initially a niche use case—has grown rapidly in TVL and innovation, RWAs have struggled to gain adoption.

The primary reason is that launching a DeFi protocol requires minimal funds to build an MVP, get user feedback, and iterate quickly. In contrast, bringing RWAs on-chain involves:

  • Establishing legal entities and corporate structures
  • Opening bank accounts and crypto-friendly accounts
  • Drafting and executing legal documents
  • Forming partnerships for custody, on-ramps, off-ramps, and trading

Each of these steps can cost between USD 100,000 and 250,000 and take 6–9 months. Every project repeats this costly process from scratch.

Our goal is to templatize this setup, reducing cost and effort by 20×. We will create standardized fund structures with flexible underlying assets, so teams can launch new RWA products more quickly and affordably.

Why DoDAO

KoalaGains is an initiative by DoDAO, a team with deep expertise across all required areas:

  1. Corporate and fund-vehicle law in multiple jurisdictions
  2. Real-world financial assets and their management
  3. Ethereum ecosystem and smart-contract development
  4. DeFi growth strategies and integrations

At DoDAO we have conducted extensive RWA research, mapped here: https://research.chainedassets.com/

We’ve also catalogued the main projects and service providers in the RWA space:

Our team has published detailed blogs on vehicle structures and compliance:

  1. https://koalagains.com/blogs/2025-06-10-bvi-spc-incubator-setup
  2. https://koalagains.com/blogs/2025-06-10-bvi-umbrella-structures
  3. https://koalagains.com/blogs/2025-06-10-bvi-vehicles-breakdown
  4. https://koalagains.com/blogs/2025-05-31-dst-series-llc-compliance-automation

On the DeFi side, DoDAO has delivered tools and integrations for Compound Finance, giving us a deep understanding of how to bridge RWA tokens into DeFi protocols.

Problem Statement

Launching an on-chain RWA product is expensive, time-consuming, and requires expertise across many verticals. High fixed costs (USD 150–250 K per iteration) leave little room for experimentation, preventing new teams from bringing different assets on-chain.

Many protocols offer token-creation tools, but that is only the simplest part. The real burden lies in regulation, compliance, banking, custody, and partnership setups.

Burden of Regulation and Compliance

RWA products face similar or greater regulatory complexity than traditional finance:

  • Negotiating custody agreements for digital asset safekeeping
  • Finding crypto-friendly banks for on-ramps and off-ramps
  • Complying with securities laws when structuring offerings

By templatizing these processes, we remove redundant work. RWA teams can then focus on asset selection, growth strategies, and DeFi integrations.

Solution

We will build a ready-to-use framework that anyone can plug into for launching real-world assets on-chain. First, we create a set of legal and technical templates for common fund structures. These templates include entity formation, bank and custody agreements, and smart-contract code. Teams only need to choose their asset and fill in a few details. This approach cuts setup time from months to weeks and reduces cost by over 90%.

Next, we provide a one-stop dashboard for managing all steps in one place. From document signing to token issuance and DeFi integrations, everything happens in a single interface. We also offer guided support for compliance and growth strategy, so teams can focus on their asset instead of recreating the wheel.

Key benefits:

  • Fast launch: Go from idea to live token in weeks, not months.
  • Lower cost: Standardized templates save >90% of upfront fees.
  • Easy growth: Built-in DeFi hooks and partner network to help you reach investors.
  • Full compliance: Pre-approved legal and banking modules for major jurisdictions.

With this solution, any asset manager or developer can bring new RWAs on-chain quickly, affordably, and securely.

Growth Challenges

Because most RWAs are treated as securities, their investor audience is limited compared to DeFi tokens, which flow freely. Every team must build bespoke structures compliant with securities laws while still offering innovation and flexibility.

Opportunities

On-Chain RWA Yield

Even with high interest rates, the average USDC rate on Aave is only 5.47%, and Aave holds nearly 50 % of on-chain DeFi TVL. Many RWA products offer double-digit yields or dividends over 5 %. Bringing these on-chain would attract strong demand, boost overall DeFi yields, and draw external capital into the ecosystem.

TradFi Shift into Alternatives

Assets under management in non-public markets surged ~67 % from USD 10 T to USD 16.7 T over the past five years, driven by high equity valuations (S&P 500 at 28× P/E) and low bond yields. By tokenizing RWAs on-chain, KoalaGains will unlock on-demand liquidity, deliver real-time, auditable reporting, and slash operational costs—activating idle capital and meeting traditional investors’ hunger for yield.

Role of Gnosis

Layer-2 solutions like Arbitrum Orbit and Optimism’s Superchain enable custom blockchains. Many other L2s subsidize gas, making transactions free or low-cost. As a core layer of financial infrastructure, Gnosis can provide more than technology:

  • Collaborate on standardized, scalable fund blueprints
  • Pilot the first 5–10 on-chain RWA assets as templates for future builders

Together, DoDAO and Gnosis will accelerate RWA adoption, enabling projects to launch securely, affordably, and at scale.

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Thanks for your post @DoDAO… great to see teams building to reduce friction as we race to onboard RWAs :raised_hands:

One thing we didn’t understand from this is whether you’re actually seeking a proposal to GnosisDAO. You mention an RWA launch framework of legal and technical templates, as well as a dashboard for charting progress. You also mention collaborating on blueprints and piloting the first 5-10 assets. If all you’re needing is some encouragement and feedback, it doesn’t immediately seem that this would need a formal governance proposal to kick things off. If, on the other hand, you had envisaged received some funding or dedicated man hours from the DAO, then it would be helpful to understand the ask upfront.

If you need any inspiration for making this to an actionable proposal, I’d recommend reading our participation guidance blog.

I’m also curious if/how this initiative might interface with the mandate under GIP:95. kpk already has a role in deploying the DAO’s treasury into RWAs, so I would suggest that any new RWA initiatives consider that mandate carefully and should seek opportunities to align with ongoing efforts.

Look forward to hearing more from this!

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Thank you, @staworth, for reviewing our proposal.

We are asking GnosisDAO for a grant to cover legal and other administrative fees for setting up entities and building a framework. This framework will be a blueprint for other RWA builders.

If the community and DAO are interested, we can give a range of expected fees. Lawyers usually charge by the hour and rarely share exact prices upfront. This makes RWAs too costly for many teams. We know the main legal tasks, but we haven’t yet asked lawyers for detailed quotes.

We can split the work into 2–3 milestones and submit all fee receipts to the DAO. We will also report our own time and effort. Depending on how the DAO backs other projects, we would appreciate support—but we’re also happy to work for free to remove this big barrier for RWA builders.

Once we have the legal blueprints and framework, we can run a small program to help other RWA teams launch on Gnosis. This will cut their legal work by 10–20×.

Karpatkey’s proposal to invest and diversify the Gnosis treasury shows the importance of RWAs on chain, and the importance of having more builders bringing assets on-chain. In this plan, Karpatkey will be a customer for RWA projects. More RWA projects on Gnosis means more choices for Karpatkey and better use of the treasury.

Please let me know if you have any more questions.

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Thanks @DoDAO.

A rough range of expected fees would definitely be helpful. If we’re reading your post right, you suggest that other RWA projects require 400k-1M in funding over 24-36 months to get off the ground. Would your proposal be in the same range (but for a more sustainable outcome)?

With you proposing a grant structure, would I be right to think that GnosisDAO wouldn’t receive any express promises or deliverables from DoDAO? Just the framework for future RWA projects and the support in launching 5-10 initial assets?

Finally, do you think it’s an efficient move for the DAO to start again with funding DoDAO’s legal and administrative costs to begin exploring RWAs when kpk has already begun work on this elsewhere? Our preference would always be to see conjoined efforts across the DAO to row in the same direction, rather than lots of clashing and competing mandates working with similar areas and goals. At the very least, we’d like to see serious efforts to try and align with work done already. Another example is the Backed Finance RWA partnership (also being managed by kpk), which doesn’t feature in your initial post.

Thanks again

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Thanks @staworth for your reply and great questions.

We have studied this area and legal structures for the last nine months. A rough cost for the initial legal setup to cover 5–10 assets is about USD 50–75K (considering filings and legal fees only). We know the legal structures pretty well, but we do not have in-house lawyers.

The result will be DoDAO bringing 5–10 RWA assets on Gnosis chain. After that, any builder can use the same structure and blueprint to launch their assets on Gnosis. This gives customers more choices and makes Gnosis a leading chain for RWAs.

With this setup, other teams will pay only USD 5–10 K in legal fees instead of over USD 100 K today(as they won’t have to reinvent the legal strucures). Karpatkey and DoDAO both work in RWAs, but with different roles—its like comparing Aave and Uniswap in DeFi.

  • Karpatkey’s role is to diversify GnosisDAO’s treasury by investing in RWAs (for example, investing in Backed Finance’s assets).

  • DoDAO’s role is to help new builders launch RWA funds and projects at 10–20× lower cost and lay the foundation for Gnosis chain to be the top choice for RWA assets.

Thanks again for your questions. Please let me know if you have any more.

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can you please add the jurisdictions this apply to, cause imo it’s quite different in e.g. EU and US while I have no knowledge about Latam, Canada, Australia and Asian countries.

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Hello @refri, thank you so much for taking the time to review the proposal.

Delaware and Cayman structures are considered the gold standard for setting up new funds. Both offer strong banking relationships and robust administrative support.

BVI (British Virgin Islands) provides flexibility, reliability, and lower costs. If the proposal moves forward, we plan to obtain quotes from legal firms for both BVI and Cayman structures. If the cost difference is not significant, we will opt for Cayman; otherwise, we’ll proceed with BVI.

We also evaluated several other fund-friendly jurisdictions in Europe and globally — such as Jersey, Bermuda, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Hong Kong, and the UK — which offer solid options and are relatively crypto-friendly. However, considering factors like corporate structure, banking infrastructure, jurisdictional trust, and overall costs, Delaware, Cayman, and BVI remain the top choices.

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Capturing feedback from discord

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