• Marathon-incubated Anduro has developed a platform for issuing and investing in RWAs on Bitcoin.
  • Like various use cases of blockchain technology, tokenization has been largely absent from Bitcoin.
  • Marathon’s incubation of Anduro may speak to a trend whereby mining companies are seeking to find more and more sources of transaction fee revenue in response to the block reward halving every four years.

As a seasoned researcher with a penchant for blockchain technology and its various applications, I find myself intrigued by Marathon Digital Holdings’ foray into the world of Real-World Asset (RWA) tokenization on Bitcoin through their incubated platform, Anduro. This development, in my view, signifies an innovative approach to addressing the challenges posed by Bitcoin’s halving cycle and the subsequent reduction in block rewards.


The Anduro multilayer networking system, nurtured within the Marathon Digital Holdings company (MARA), has constructed a platform to facilitate the release and investment of real-world assets directly on the Bitcoin network.

As an analyst, I’ve learned that we are embarking on a pioneering venture with our partner, Vertalo – a tokenization expert. Our collaborative platform, Avant, is set to initiate a pilot project aimed at tokenizing whiskey barrels. This exciting development has been confidentially disclosed to CoinDesk.

Tokenization involves creating digital representations, or tokens, for Real World Assets (RWAs), which can then be bought and sold on blockchain platforms. For instance, in August, the market value of tokenized Treasury notes traded on networks such as Ethereum and Solana surpassed a staggering $2 billion.

In my role as a researcher, I express my conviction that as traditional finance merges with decentralized finance, the collaborative efforts between Vertalo and Anduro will assure their associates that the robustness of the Bitcoin blockchain transcends merely digital currencies like BTC, and permeates into real-world assets. This perspective is shared by Dave Hendricks, co-founder of Vertalo.

In contrast to how blockchain technology is often applied elsewhere, tokenization was initially less common with Bitcoin. However, this trend has started shifting recently due to advancements such as the integration of smart contracts or the creation of methods for minting tokens.

According to Julian Duran, the product lead at Anduro, Avant could potentially set a path for the implementation of RWAs, but with a unique twist involving Bitcoin.

Anduro prefers not to directly transfer an RWA contract from both Ethereum and Solana blockchains onto Bitcoin. Instead, he aims to propose a solution that is familiar to Bitcoin users, as he stated.

“A bitcoiner who wants tokenized Treasury bills can easily access that via Ondo Finance. Why would we create an Ondo Finance competitor?” he said in an interview with CoinDesk. “We see the opportunity being in these traditional, hard industries that are immediately recognizable, such as American whiskey.”

Marathon’s Bitcoin RWA Play

The nurturing of Anduro by Marathon could signal a growing tendency among mining companies, as they explore alternative methods for generating income from transaction fees, due to the periodic reduction in block rewards that occurs every four years.

Bitcoins are mined by competing individuals who work diligently to solve complex mathematical puzzles. This process enables them to append fresh blocks to the digital network and, as a consequence, they receive newly minted Bitcoins. The compensation for this task gets cut in half every four years, with the most recent reduction happening in April of this year, resulting in each miner receiving 3.125 BTC per block.

This process supports Bitcoin’s ability to function as a reliable form of savings, but it creates a difficulty for miners, because their earnings are reduced by half approximately every four years.

In terms of Marathon, a publicly-traded mining company whose stock value closely follows Bitcoin’s, Duran suggests exploring innovative strategies to boost both the price and adoption. By increasing the number of individuals using Bitcoin, we create a realm with higher transaction fees, which in turn benefits the entire Bitcoin ecosystem.

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2024-10-07 12:41