A coalition of Web3 and fintech companies has unveiled a new Ethereum token standard aimed at tackling one of the most pressing challenges in real-world asset (RWA) tokenization — industry fragmentation.
The new proposal, ERC-7943, is designed as a minimal yet modular interface that works seamlessly across Ethereum layer-2 networks and Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chains. Unlike past standards, it is implementation-agnostic and vendor-neutral, meaning it can integrate into any ecosystem without relying on company-specific tools.
Related reporting: Ether ETFs record consecutive week of outflows as price slips.
Dario Lo Buglio, co-founder of Brickken and the author of Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP)-7943, explained that the standard acts as a “universal layer” that can sit on top of any token type. This enables developers and institutions to tokenize assets without building custom wrappers, bridges, or complex integrations. ERC-7943 has already attracted support from a coalition of Web3 and fintech players, including Bit2Me, Brickken, Compellio, Dekalabs, DigiShares, Hacken, Forte Protocol, FullyTokenized, RealEstate.Exchange, Stobox, and Zoth.
Responding to surging institutional interest
Lo Buglio emphasized that the timing of ERC-7943 aligns with both developer frustration and a “perfect storm” of institutional adoption of tokenized assets. Data from RWA.xyz shows that the total onchain value of tokenized RWAs has surged to $28.44 billion, up nearly 6% in just the past month. Meanwhile, stablecoins and asset holder growth are also climbing steadily.
“Financial institutions want programmable controls that align with their compliance requirements, while developers are forced to rewrite custom logic for every RWA token,” Lo Buglio said. “We needed a single foundation both sides could rely on.”
He added that ERC-7943 has already entered the review stage of the EIP process, where compliance professionals and other token standard authors are providing input.
Tackling fragmentation and enabling composability
Previous standards attempted to address parts of the problem. ERC-1400 blended elements of fungible and non-fungible tokens with compliance tools, while ERC-3643 focused on regulated securities, embedding KYC and AML processes directly into tokens.
Lo Buglio explained that ERC-7943 differentiates itself by being minimal, composable, and implementation-agnostic. Instead of dictating how RWAs must be structured, it defines only the essential functions that must exist. This allows projects to plug it into their existing stacks without friction.
“The primary goal of ERC-7943 is to solve the fragmentation problem by giving the industry a single, standardized set of compliance functions,” Lo Buglio said. “It doesn’t tell you how to build your house — only that the foundation must be solid.”