RWA Tokens: Check Freeze Authority and Clawback
RWA Signal Insight
InfrastructureAn investigation into 32 tokenized assets on the Solana blockchain revealed that every single one maintains a freeze authority, granting issuers unilateral control over user balances. Furthermore, 21 of these assets include a clawback permission, enabling issuers to remove tokens from investor wallets without holder consent. This systemic vulnerability was highlighted by a September 11, 2026, exploit at Dominion Market, where a compromised multisig wallet led to the removal of SILV holdings. SILV, marketed as representing one troy ounce of physical silver per unit, saw its price plummet by approximately 74 percent following the incident. The findings demonstrate that many tokenized real-world assets function as centralized ledger entries rather than decentralized ownership claims. This reality challenges the common investor assumption that blockchain-based assets are immune to issuer interference. For the RWA market, this underscores a critical transparency gap regarding the technical governance structures embedded in token smart contracts.
Key points
- 100% of 32 analyzed Solana-based tokenized assets contain a mandatory freeze authority.
- 65% of the examined assets possess clawback permissions allowing unauthorized token removal.
- Dominion Market's SILV token lost 74% of its value after a multisig compromise.
- Tokenized RWA holders often lack true self-custody due to centralized mint account controls.
Background
Solana's token program allows developers to define specific administrative authorities within a mint account. These authorities are often implemented for regulatory compliance, such as anti-money laundering (AML) requirements or the ability to recover assets in the event of a lost private key. However, these same features create centralized points of failure that can be exploited if the issuer's administrative keys are compromised.