State Street: DeFi's hack problem must be solved before trillions in RWAs go on-chain.

Angus Fletcher, State Street's head of digital assets, told Consensus Miami that the crypto industry must address security and interoperability gaps now — before the anticipated wave of tokenized real-world assets arrives at scale. His warning comes after what Morpho's Dennis Bree called the worst month for DeFi hacks on record: April saw a $295 million exploit hit Drift, followed by a similarly sized attack on KelpDAO.

Fletcher stressed that cross-chain legal clarity is non-negotiable for institutional adoption. Institutions need to know the legal title and rights attached to a token when it moves across chains — ambiguity there is a dealbreaker for custodians managing client assets.

Bree added that DeFi curators are already tightening diligence on collateral assets in response, and that Morpho is fielding inquiries from managers with $10–15 billion AUM who are still working through…