Pharos launches RWA layer 1 with $52 million in backing

Pharos Network launched its real-world asset (RWA) focused Layer 1 mainnet, Pacific Ocean, alongside its native PROS token, backed by $52 million in funding to address persistent asset fragmentation in the crypto market.

"Pharos is not just an L1 that supports RWAs,” Wish Wu, Co-founder and CEO at Pharos, said. “It’s an asset-native RealFi Layer 1 designed to make these assets usable, compliant, and accessible from day one.”

The mainnet activation follows an active testnet phase, where the network processed nearly 4.3 billion transactions across 209 million wallets. More than 50 applications are expected to deploy at launch, while the network’s pAlpha High Yield RWA Vault reached its $50 million capacity within days of its introduction, signaling early demand.

The launch positions Pharos in a competitive Layer 1 market, betting that a finance-native architecture can solve the institutional compliance and fragmented liquidity issues that have slowed broad RWA adoption on general-purpose chains like Solana and Avalanche.

Pharos aims to create a unified environment for tokenized assets through its "RealFi" approach, embedding financial logic directly into the base layer. The project argues that while tokenized treasuries and real estate exist at scale, their distribution across different platforms limits their utility. By providing a consistent, compliance-ready framework, Pharos intends to allow capital to move more freely between applications.

To avoid the "cold start" problem common to new ecosystems, Pharos is launching with key integrations. The network will incorporate Circle’s USDC stablecoin and Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) for capital flows. For user onboarding, it has integrated OKX Wallet and Topnod Wallet, developed by Ant Group, potentially giving millions of existing users direct access to the ecosystem.

This strategy challenges the model of competitors like Aptos and Sui, which have focused on parallel execution and developer frameworks, or NEAR Protocol, which has prioritized usability. Pharos is wagering that for the estimated $16 trillion RWA market to come onchain, the underlying infrastructure must function as a dedicated financial system from the start.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.