Before you trust an RWA platform with your money, review it the same way every time, scoring the things that actually protect you. This template gives you the six areas to evaluate - regulation, custody, the assets, fees, liquidity, and track record - and the specific questions to ask in each. It works for any platform in any category, and it is the same rubric we would apply to ourselves: a platform that cannot answer these clearly has told you something important. Use it as a repeatable scorecard rather than relying on reputation or a slick interface.

Disclosure: Unicorn Invest, which publishes this hub, is an RWA platform. This template is deliberately the test to apply to us as much as to anyone - no platform should be exempt from it.

1. Regulation and legal structure

Start with the rules. Under which exemptions does the platform sell, and are the licensed parties named? Are the tokens genuine security tokens with an enforceable claim on the asset? In which jurisdictions does it operate, and does it screen for eligibility properly? A platform vague about its regulatory basis fails at the first hurdle.

2. Custody

Who holds the assets, and can it be verified? Look for a named, regulated qualified custodian holding assets segregated from the platform's own funds, ideally with proof of reserves or audits. "We custody it ourselves" with no oversight is a serious weakness - it means nothing stands between you and the platform failing. The lesson is recent and expensive: FTX collapsed in 2022 in part because customer assets were not segregated from the company's own, so when it failed, customers' funds went with it. Segregated custody with a named, regulated custodian is precisely the wall that prevents that.

3. The assets themselves

Review the offerings as investments, not listings. Are the properties, loans, or funds clearly described, with real financials? Is the underlying quality good, or is the platform relying on high yields to distract from weak assets? A good platform curates; a weak one lists anything.

4. Fees and economics

Find every fee: entry, management, performance, and exit. Then check how distributions are structured and where you sit. Calculate your net return after all costs - a platform with modest headline yields and low, transparent fees can beat one with higher yields and heavy, hidden charges.

5. Liquidity and exit

How do you get out? Is there an active secondary market with real trades, a redemption option, or only the eventual asset sale? Be specific - ask for evidence of actual secondary activity, not a promise. Unacknowledged illiquidity is one of the most common investor traps.

6. Track record and transparency

How long has the platform operated, and what is its history - deals completed, distributions paid, any defaults or incidents handled? Is the team identifiable and responsive? Does it communicate clearly in bad news as well as good? Longevity and candor are strong positive signals. You can also cross-check some of this against public data - aggregators like rwa.xyz track live assets and issuers, so a platform's claimed scale is verifiable rather than taken on trust.

How to score it

Rate each area pass / partial / fail, and weight the first two most heavily - regulation and custody are where real losses happen. A platform that passes all six earns a larger allocation; one that fails either of the first two does not get your money regardless of its yields. Pair this with the asset-level due-diligence checklist, and you have covered both the venue and the deal.

Where to go next

• Next: the state of RWA tokenization (live data).
• Deal-level checks: the due-diligence checklist.
• Glossary: due diligence.

Sources: rwa.xyz; U.S. SEC (sec.gov), as of 2026.