ROAD TOWN, British Virgin Islands, March 17, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — RAAC, a decentralized Real World Asset (RWA) lending and borrowing ecosystem, is announcing the launch of its testnet today in the face of strong institutional demand. This has helped the project secure $235 million in gold-backed deposits at launch from one of the largest gold reserves in North America, while it also pursues opportunities in US rental property and more.
Grounded in the $1.8 billion Curve ecosystem, RAAC is a member of the Chainlink Build program and has been incubated by The LLamas – a DeFi community that supports, builds, and promotes Curve ecosystem growth.
Curve founder and RAAC advisor Michael Egorov says: “Most value in crypto is driven by DeFi and payments. However, as for DeFi, this value is currently derived mostly from crypto speculation. We need projects like RAAC to go beyond our crypto bubble, realize the true potential of programmable, decentralized money, and eventually have the global financial system naturally re-architected.”
Initially, RAAC will develop protocols integrating gold-backed and real estate-backed tokens from asset owners through Instruxi – a leading institutional tokenization provider that serves both the digital and traditional asset space. These asset owners include Pretio DeFi Solutions, which, with its partners, has secured a contract with the North Terrace Mining Project in British Columbia to acquire 1 million troy ounces of proven gold reserves for tokenization.
At the time of tokenization, these reserves are valued at approximately $400 million—20% of a discounted spot price of $2,000 per troy ounce. Over a 10 to 15-year production cycle, once the gold is extracted, refined, and securely stored, the tokenized asset’s total estimated value could reach up to $3 billion, depending on market conditions and future gold prices.
RAAC founder Kevin Rusher says: “RAAC has been in the works for a long time. This is not something we wanted to rush. Our team believes passionately in increasing access to the world’s most stable assets in one of the world’s most volatile sectors. We will achieve all this and more with RAAC. We don’t want to bring the next billion users into decentralized finance, but the next $100 billion.”
The tokenization process will transform these proven gold reserves into fractional digital assets, which will be deposited into the Pretio Foundation DAO. The DAO Treasury will manage a comprehensive digital ecosystem that leverages on-chain liquidity and advanced DeFi protocols from the RAAC ecosystem.
This ecosystem will operate via stablecoins minted by the Pretio Treasury, initially backed by the gold reserves—and later by additional precious metals. At RAAC’s launch, Pretio will contribute an initial $235 million in treasury assets, with further assets to be added to the ecosystem over time.
Pier S. Bjorklund, manager of Pretio DeFi Solutions, remarks: “The North Terrace Mining Project exemplifies our commitment to innovation. Pretio DeFi and our partners are setting a new standard by seamlessly integrating traditional gold mining with state-of-the-art blockchain, decentralized finance technologies, and sustainable mining practices.”
Mathew Harrowing, co-founder of Instruxi, adds: “One of the biggest issues RWA tokenization faced was on-chain liquidity. RAAC solves that elegantly while providing a vehicle for asset holders and traditional finance institutions to get credible exposure to the DeFi market with a stable and predictable yield. It’s truly game-changing.”
RAAC’s testnet is available to non-US persons and will be followed by a closed beta. Currently, the Ethereum mainnet launch and Token Generation Event are scheduled for Q2.
*RAAC is only available in a limited number of jurisdictions and is not available to US persons*
About RAAC
RAAC is a decentralized lending and borrowing ecosystem that is widening participation in tokenized Real World Assets like real estate and gold. The platform allows users to borrow against their holdings at competitive rates, while also offering investors access to high-value arbitrage opportunities. Providing a bridge between traditional and decentralized finance, RAAC is modernizing the way investors can access and profit from the world’s most stable assets.
Profile Links:
Contact
CEO and Founder
Rebecca Jones
Block3 PR
[email protected]
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/1439670f-0439-46e4-b2c2-93bf24d79c64
