The XDC Network: Powering the Future of Trade Finance and Real-World Asset Tokenization

Modified on Tue, 23 Sep at 7:12 PM

In the rapidly evolving world of blockchain, the XDC Network stands out as an enterprise-grade, hybrid platform specifically engineered to bridge the gap between traditional finance and the decentralized digital economy. Its core mission revolves around leveraging blockchain efficiencies for real-world applications, with a significant focus on revolutionizing global trade finance and enabling the tokenization of Real-World Assets (RWAs). Let's explore the technology, features, native token, tokenomics, and crucial role in the RWA space that define the XDC Network.

What is the XDC Network and its Technology?

The XDC Network operates as a Layer 1 blockchain, providing the fundamental infrastructure for decentralized applications (dApps) and protocols. It is fully Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible, allowing developers familiar with Ethereum to easily deploy smart contracts and build applications using established tools and languages like Solidity.

Its architecture is uniquely hybrid. While offering a transparent public ledger, it also supports permissioned subnetworks suitable for enterprise use cases requiring controlled access or privacy. This duality is key to its strategy for institutional adoption.

Powering the network is the XinFin Delegated Proof of Stake (XDPoS) consensus mechanism. This efficient system relies on:

Masternodes: A limited number of vetted nodes responsible for validating transactions and creating blocks, requiring a significant stake of XDC tokens.
Delegation: Other XDC holders can delegate their tokens to Masternodes, contributing to network security and earning rewards. This XDPoS model ensures high performance and energy efficiency, making the XDC Network a robust platform explicitly designed to facilitate the demanding requirements of Real-World Asset (RWA) tokenization and large-scale enterprise solutions.

Highlight Features Tailored for Real-World Use

The XDC Network incorporates several features critical for its target applications, particularly RWAs:

High Speed and Scalability: Capable of processing over 2000 transactions per second (TPS), enabling near-instantaneous settlement crucial for trading tokenized assets and handling high-volume trade documentation.
Ultra-Low Transaction Fees: With costs around 1/100th of typical Ethereum fees, XDC makes operations like fractional asset trading, micro-transactions, and frequent document processing economically feasible.
Energy Efficiency: The XDPoS consensus consumes minimal energy compared to Proof-of-Work chains, aligning with sustainability goals important for institutional partners.
EVM Compatibility: Lowers the barrier for developers to build and migrate RWA-focused dApps and smart contracts.
Security & Hybrid Architecture: Provides the necessary security for high-value assets and allows for configurations meeting enterprise compliance and privacy needs.
Interoperability: Designed to connect seamlessly with legacy financial systems and potentially other blockchains, vital for integrating tokenized assets into the broader financial ecosystem.
Enterprise & Trade Finance Focus: The network's development and partnerships are heavily geared towards solving real challenges in global trade and enterprise operations.
Optimized for Tokenization: The infrastructure is built to efficiently handle the creation, management, and trading of digital tokens representing diverse real-world assets.

History of XDC Network

XDC Network was initiated by XinFin Fintech Pte. Ltd., a technology company based in Singapore, founded in 2017 by two co-founders: Ritesh Kakkad and Atul Khekade.

This project started in 2017 when XinFin Fintech was founded in Singapore to solve the problem of inefficiency in global trade finance using a hybrid blockchain model. In the initial phase, the XDC mainnet started using the efficient XDPoS consensus and EVM compatibility, launching in 2019.

Later, the XDC Foundation was established in mid-2021. In the same year, it joined the prestigious Trade Finance Distribution Initiative (TFDi) consortium and hosted the first trade finance-based NFT via Tradeteq.

In 2023, the focus shifted to Real-World Assets (RWAs), launching the tokenization of US Treasury bonds (USTY). Additionally, the mainnet upgrade to XDC 2.0, enhancing security (BFT), was completed in late 2024. Throughout its development, the network focused on enterprise adoption, RWA tokenization, and bridging the SME funding gap.

Ritesh Kakkad is a major technology entrepreneur with a background primarily in cloud computing systems, web infrastructure, and hosting. He brings this experience to the blockchain and protocol setup for the network.
Atul Khekade is a computer engineer with experience in technology and is also a key entrepreneur. He participated in conceptualizing and developing one of the first permissioned blockchain systems for a group of major banks in Asia and is also a co-founder of an airline chartering business.

XDC Network: A Hub for Real-World Asset (RWA) Tokenization

RWA tokenization is central to the XDC Network's strategy. This involves creating digital tokens on the XDC blockchain representing ownership of tangible or intangible real-world assets.

Why is XDC Suited for RWAs? Its combination of low fees, high speed, security, hybrid capabilities, and interoperability directly addresses the needs of tokenizing and managing real-world assets efficiently and compliantly.

Key RWA Use Cases & Initiatives:

Revolutionizing Trade Finance: This is a flagship area. Platforms like TradeFinex leverage the XDC Network to tokenize trade finance instruments such as invoices and letters of credit. This injects much-needed liquidity into the market (addressing a multi-trillion dollar financing gap), streamlines processes, and makes financing more accessible, particularly for SMEs.
Diverse Asset Classes: Beyond trade finance, the network supports the tokenization of a wide range of assets including real estate, commodities, art, intellectual property, private business loans, and more.
Democratizing Investment: Tokenization enables fractional ownership, allowing smaller investors to access high-value assets previously out of reach. It also removes geographical barriers, creating more inclusive global markets.
Driving Ecosystem Growth: XDC Network actively promotes RWA innovation. They participate in key industry events (e.g., RWA London Summit) and have launched a dedicated RWA Accelerator program with Plug and Play in Silicon Valley (March 2025). This initiative fosters startups building RWA solutions on XDC, including projects like Blockticity, Clearpool, Credefi, InvestaX, Polytrade, Plume, Tokeny, Zoth, and others, signaling strong commitment to building a vibrant RWA ecosystem.

The XDC Token: Fueling the Network

The XDC token is the native cryptocurrency and the lifeblood of the XDC Network. Its primary functions include:

Gas Fees: Paying for transaction execution and smart contract deployment.
Staking: Securing the network via delegation to Masternodes, rewarding participants with more XDC.
Governance: Enabling token holders to vote on network upgrades and proposals.
dApp Utility: Accessing services and applications within the ecosystem, especially those related to tokenized assets and trade finance.

Token Allocation and Tokenomics

XDC launched in 2018 with a maximum supply of 100,000,000,000 tokens. The most important factor to consider is the supply of XDC currently "available" in the market, generally referred to as the "circulating supply." This supply may change over time as more tokens enter the market. The method by which XDC tokens are allocated is designed to promote the comprehensive growth of the entire ecosystem.

The initial allocation can be broken down as follows:

Ecosystem Participation Incentives - 32.5%
Founders/Team - 25%
Ecosystem Development Pool - 15%
Pre-allocation/Offering - 10%
Hedge Pool - 10%
Philanthropy - 5%
Contingency - 2.5%

Interesting Information Regarding XDC Price

According to data from the Coinmarketcap website on 25 April 2025, the XDC coin has a market capitalization (Market cap) of USD $1,177,624,210 or THB 39,474,187,537.

At the time of writing this article, the XDC coin is trading at approximately $0.07499 or about 2.51 THB per 1 XDC. XDC reached its all-time high price of $0.1939 or approximately 6.50 THB per 1 XDC on 21 August 2021.

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