In January 2026, the regulated Dutch securities exchange NPEX announced a major milestone— the first batch of €300M securities assets officially launched clearing on the DUSK network. What does this mean for the entire RWA track? Simply put, it marks the transition from laboratory experiments to real-world commercial scenarios.

Over the past five years, the concept of RWA has been everywhere, with numerous validation projects, but very few have actually been implemented. The core reason is quite painful: these projects struggle to meet the strict audit requirements of MiFID II and MiCA regulations. Why can DUSK succeed? Because it provides institutions like NPEX, which hold MTF (Multilateral Trading Facility) licenses, with a technical framework that both protects privacy and opens a regulatory backdoor.

What is the key to this framework? The Citadel protocol. In simple terms, it is a layer supporting zero-knowledge proof-based identity verification (ZKK-KYC). There is a deadlock in traditional finance: anti-money laundering requirements demand traceable transactions, but commercial law requires confidentiality of holdings. DUSK solves this contradiction with Citadel— when investors complete KYC with a compliance service provider, they generate an encrypted credential. During on-chain transactions, the system automatically verifies the credential’s validity, while the user’s personal information remains completely hidden from external parties. In case of legal disputes or regulatory inspections, authorized audit nodes holding the view key can trace the full information. The balance between privacy and regulation has finally found a practical path.