I've been diving deep into the current state of real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, and a few insights from Plume's CEO, Chris Yin, really stood out to me. While there's a lot of buzz around RWAs in crypto, Yin believes the space is still in its early days—especially when it comes to attracting institutional investors.
He made an interesting comparison to the early days of Bitcoin and stablecoins. Back then, it took nearly a decade before institutions seriously considered using them. Yin expects the same long adoption curve for RWAs. According to him, the RWA market needs to grow organically and attract a broader user base before institutions will show real interest.
What really caught my attention was his take on market size. While some reports claim RWAs are worth over $21 billion, Yin believes the real number is closer to $10 billion—mostly made up of Treasury bills, gold, and a bit of private credit. He even challenged the popular $21B figure, saying people are interpreting the data all wrong.
Data from RWA.xyz puts RWA market cap at around $21.96B as of April 30, with private credit leading at $12.87B, followed by Treasury bills at $6.33B. But not everyone agrees. Stobox co-founder Ross Shemeliak says tokenized Treasurys and bonds actually make up the bulk—about 60–65% of the total. He also pointed out how hard it is to estimate the market size accurately because a lot of private asset data is still scattered or unavailable.
Another point Yin made that really resonated with me: institutional investors often wait until a space matures before jumping in—not because they want to help it grow, but because they see an opportunity to extract value. He suggests that instead of relying on big players, the RWA space should focus more on its native community to build from the ground up.
Shemeliak had a slightly different view, though. He thinks the sector can’t thrive long-term without institutional capital, comparing it to a stock market with no regulators or custodians.
There’s no doubt RWA tokenization is a space to watch, but it’s clear the road to mainstream adoption is still a long one—and it might just be up to us, the crypto-native community, to lead the charwrgefor now. $BTC
