The RWA (Real-World Asset) track is now a gathering of elites, with various projects vying for a share. But when it comes to who has truly carved out their own path, Dusk is quite special—not blindly following trends, but having understood a key issue from the very foundation of protocol design: are privacy and compliance really mortal enemies?

This project has been working on it since 2018, with a clear positioning: building a privacy-first yet fully compliant financial infrastructure. It sounds a bit contradictory, but the technical implementation is quite clever. Their Hedger privacy engine is the core weapon, combining homomorphic encryption and zero-knowledge proofs to enable transactions on EVM to hide transaction details while maintaining a "transparency channel" for regulators—essentially, users' privacy is protected, but regulators can still audit when needed. This turns privacy from an opposition to compliance into a protective measure.

The technical stack is also well thought out. DuskEVM is fully compatible with standard Solidity, so developers can migrate without learning costs; the underlying DuskDS provides instant finality and an efficient Kadcast network architecture, meeting institutional-level performance standards. This means teams transitioning from traditional finance to blockchain can basically connect seamlessly.

The most eye-catching partnership is the strategic collaboration with the Dutch licensed exchange NPEX. NPEX holds MTF, Broker, and ECSP licenses, and through this cooperation, Dusk directly inherits regulatory permissions. It may sound abstract, but the practical impact is significant—over €300 million worth of securities like stocks and bonds can be natively on-chain. The DuskTrade platform plans to go live gradually in 2026, making Europe the first fully on-chain compliant securities market. Imagine 24/7 global liquidity, T+0 instant settlement, and completely eliminating counterparty risk—that’s what it means for institutional investors. Cross-chain integration with Chainlink is also progressing, connecting the last mile of real-world asset liquidity.

On the ecosystem data side, it’s also worth noting. The TVL of Sozu, the liquid staking protocol, has already surpassed $20 million, with an annual yield of about 30%. The DUSK token has a capped supply of 1 billion, with a gradual emission over 36 years. Currently, circulating supply is close to 500 million, with a market price around $0.051, actively traded on several major exchanges. The community’s CreatorPad activity pool holds over 3 million DUSK, used to incentivize content creators to participate in ecosystem development.

In essence, what Dusk aims to do is fundamentally rewrite the rules of finance. Enabling ordinary investors to self-custody institutional-grade assets without intermediaries, directly participating in trillion-dollar markets that were previously accessible only to large institutions. By 2026, when Dusk Pay and more RWA applications are fully implemented, this fusion of privacy and compliance may enter a new phase.