Pharos Bets on ‘RealFi’ for Mainnet Launch and Why Its CEO Thinks RWAs Need a New Kind of Blockchain

As competition among Layer 1 blockchains intensifies, real-world assets (RWAs) are emerging as a key focus area for the next phase of ecosystem development, with platforms like Solana, Aptos, NEAR Protocol, Sui, and Avalanche exploring different approaches. Backed by $52 million in funding and launched alongside its $PROS token, Pharos is entering a crowded market with a specific focus. The network targets two widely cited barriers to real-world asset adoption: fragmented distribution and the lack of infrastructure that meets institutional requirements for compliance and privacy. For Wish Wu, Co-founder and CEO at Pharos, that framing reflects a broader gap in how blockchain infrastructure has evolved. “The question isn’t just whether a chain can process transactions,” Wu said. “It’s whether assets, users, compliance flows, and applications can actually operate together in one environment. That’s what we were validating with the Atlantic testnet.” Competing in a Crowded L1 Field Pharos enters a market where competitors have already established strong positions, reflecting a broader maturation of the Layer 1 landscape. Solana has become synonymous with high-throughput execution and retail-driven DeFi and trading activity. Aptos and Sui, developed by Mysten Labs, have focused on parallel execution and next-generation developer frameworks. NEAR Protocol has emphasized usability, while Avalanche has leaned into institutional adoption through customizable subnets. their underlying assumption. “Most blockchains today are still general-purpose systems,” Wu said. “They’re incredibly powerful, but finance is something that gets layered on afterward. We think that approach creates fragmentation.” Instead of adapting to financial use cases, Pharos is attempting to embed them directly into the network itself through what it calls “RealFi.” From Fragmentation to Distribution One of the core arguments behind Pharos is that tokenized assets already exist at scale, but remain di...