I think we may be looking at RWAs from the wrong angle.
The interesting part of @TermMax RWA Season isn’t simply that stocks are being tokenized.
It’s what happens after they become tokens.
TermMax currently lets users deposit eligible Ondo stock tokens to borrow USDT on BNB Chain. On the other side, USDT lenders can provide liquidity to those borrowers and earn XP rewards.
That creates a much more interesting progression:
Traditional asset → tokenized asset → DeFi collateral → liquidity. And the collateral itself isn’t just a synthetic number on a screen.
Ondo Stocks are designed to bring public stocks and ETFs onchain. They are transferable, DeFi-compatible, available across multiple chains, and backed by the corresponding securities and cash. Ondo says an independent Verification Agent reviews the backing daily.
This is where the RWA thesis starts getting more interesting to me.
Tokenization gives an asset onchain accessibility. Collateralization gives that asset financial utility.
Instead of selling a tokenized position to access liquidity, the holder can potentially use that position within a credit market. That changes the question. We shouldn’t only ask:
“How much real-world value has been tokenized?”
We should also ask:
“How much economic activity can that tokenized value unlock?”
After exploring Babylon's native Bitcoin-backed borrowing on the Aave v4 Public Testnet, one thing stood out to me: the experience feels focused on keeping Bitcoin useful without changing what makes it valuable.
What I liked most was the direction of using native Bitcoin as collateral instead of relying on wrapped versions across multiple systems. It shows how Bitcoin can become more capital-efficient while staying connected to its own security model.
My feedback from testing is simple: the interface is easy to understand, but adding more educational walkthroughs for first-time users would make onboarding even better.
Compared with many Bitcoin lending solutions, Babylon's approach feels more aligned with Bitcoin's core principles of security and simplicity.
If you're interested in the future of Bitcoin DeFi, this Public Testnet is definitely worth exploring.