Reality, a real-world asset issuance platform within the Bitget ecosystem, has partnered with Merkl. Under the partnership, Merkl will identify eligible rToken holders whose tokens are deployed across supported DeFi protocols. Users who move their tokens into lending, liquidity provision, or staking, rather than holding them in a wallet, will then continue to receive dividend payments in stablecoin.
Tracing ownership through smart contracts
rTokens provide tokenised exposure to publicly listed stocks and ETFs. That exposure includes eligible economic benefits such as dividends. Once these tokens are deposited into a lending market, liquidity pool, or staking contract, the smart contract itself may be recorded as the onchain holder in place of the individual user. As a result, it becomes harder to determine who is entitled to a given dividend distribution.
Merkl’s reward forwarder technology is designed to resolve this attribution gap. It traces token positions through supported smart contracts, identifies the underlying holders, and allocates distributions according to the applicable rules. The system can account for several layers of nested DeFi contracts as well as protocol-specific fees. Users and developers can check whether a particular contract is supported through the Merkl Studio Forwarder Scan tool.
Pablo Veyrat, CEO and Co-founder of Merkl, described the central difficulty with DeFi-held assets as establishing who sits behind each position. The official said the forwarder technology follows ownership through nested contracts so that Reality can direct dividends to the correct recipients. Gracy Chen, CEO of Bitget, stated that tokenised equities should serve purposes beyond trading, adding that users who deploy rTokens in DeFi should still be able to collect the dividends they are eligible for.
Division of responsibilities
The roles are split between the two companies. Reality continues to manage rToken issuance and dividend entitlements, while Merkl supplies the reward forwarding infrastructure used to identify eligible holders across supported DeFi positions. Under Reality’s rToken model, eligible cash dividends are distributed separately from the token’s price, and net cash dividends are generally settled in USDT. Distributions through DeFi remain subject to the supported contracts and the relevant distribution rules.
Reality works with licensed brokers on major exchanges, including Nasdaq and the NYSE. It purchases the underlying assets and holds them in custody, then issues the corresponding rights onchain.
Merkl operates as an onchain money streaming platform used by stablecoin issuers, fintechs, neobanks, and tokenised funds to calculate and send yield, dividends, and payouts.
Adoption within Bitget’s UEX ecosystem
The partnership follows the growing use of rTokens within Bitget’s UEX ecosystem. According to a DeFiLlama report, cumulative rToken trading volume reached USD 1.16 billion between June and July 2026. In July 2026, the number of users trading both crypto and rTokens rose 23.54% month on month. The companies interpret these figures as a sign of demand for tokenised equities as part of broader cross-asset strategies.
