Reality, Merkl link rToken dividends to DeFi

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.