Here’s what happened in crypto today

Today in crypto, Bernstein says the tokenized real-world asset (RWA) market has grown to $51 billion, marking a 42% year-to-date increase, Kelp DAO says its rsETH token is fully restored, and industry political action committees have poured money into Texas congressional races set for run-off votes on Tuesday.

RWA market hits $51 billion as tokenized private credits surges: Bernstein

The tokenized RWA market has grown to $51 billion, up 42% this year, as private credit becomes the largest segment of the market, according to a Bernstein Research report seen by Cointelegraph.

Private credit accounted for roughly 44% of total RWA value, Bernstein said, reflecting growing use of blockchain-based infrastructure for lending and fund structures.

The $51 billion valuation sits well above other industry estimates, such as RWA.xyz’s $34 billion figure, highlighting how different analytics providers count tokenized assets.

Institutional players are increasingly entering the market through tokenized lending and fund structures, including BlackRock’s tokenized money market fund BUIDL, which has surpassed $2.5 billion in assets, Bernstein said.

Tokenized RWA market cap. Source: Bernstein Research

Tokenized private credit has emerged as a major RWA segment, providing a way to record loans on blockchain networks instead of traditional banking systems. These loans are issued outside banks, with investors funding them directly in exchange for interest payments.

According to Bernstein, much of the growth in onchain private credit assets has been driven by Figure Technology Solutions (FIGR), a financial technology company that uses blockchain infrastructure for loan origination and settlement.

Figure ranked first among tokenized RWA platforms with $18 billion in assets, largely tied to private credit, according to Bernstein.

Kelp DAO says rsETH restored after $293 million protocol hack

Ethereum liquid staking protocol Kelp DAO said on Monday that its restaked Ether token has been restored after a recovery effort, coming five weeks after the protocol suffered a $293 million exploit by North Korea’s Lazarus Group on April 18.

Kelp DAO said the final tranche of 20,373.7 Kelp DAO restaked ETH (rsETH) tokens had been sent to the LayerZero smart contract responsible for locking, minting, burning and releasing rsETH during cross-chain transfers.

“This closes the operational part of the rsETH recovery plan,” Kelp said. Several crypto protocols contributed funds to help restore rsETH’s backing under the DeFi United initiative.

Source: Stani Kulechov

The Kelp DAO hack in April caused a ripple effect throughout the crypto lending market that disrupted billions of dollars in liquidity and resurfaced concerns about the interconnectedness of decentralized finance protocols.

The first tranche of 25,000 rsETH was transferred on May 13, allowing rsETH bridging between the Ethereum mainnet and the blockchain’s layer 2 networks to reopen. Kelp reopened withdrawals for rsETH the following day and said on Tuesday that rsETH mints, redemptions and rewards operations “have been running normally.”

Crypto PAC money pours into Texas primary runoffs

Two Texas Congressional candidates supported by millions of dollars in spending from interest groups aligned with the cryptocurrency industry are headed for runoffs this week in races for the US Senate and House of Representatives.

On Tuesday, Democratic voters in Texas’ 18th congressional district will decide between incumbent Al Green and challenger Christian Menefee to run in November's general election. Statewide, voters will choose between Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and incumbent John Cornyn for the Republican primary for US Senate.

Both Tuesday races are runoffs after none of the candidates failed to secure a majority in Texas’ March primaries. The crypto industry, through spending on media by political action committees (PACs), has stakes in both races, which could influence policy and the makeup of Congress going into 2027.

As of Sunday, Protect Progress, affiliated with the Ripple- and Coinbase-backed Fairshake PAC, reported spending $5 million to support Menefee over Green. The PAC spent $2.8 million on ads opposing Green. Menefee also has the endorsement of the Blockchain Leadership Fund, a committee backed by Anchorage Digital and Chainlink Labs, though it had not reported any expenditures as of Monday.

Source: Kalshi