Author: Haotian
The news that PLUME is about to go live on Binance has brought the market's focus back to this new RWAFi rising star. From a TVL exceeding $330 million in 2 months to over 177,000 RWA holders firmly at the top, has Plume provided a narrative correction for the RWAFi track with data?
1) The figures of 177,000 RWA holders and $330 million may seem abstract at first glance, but if we say that the 177,000 RWA holders exceed the total of Ethereum and Solana's RWA holders combined, and that the $330 million TVL is supported by over 90% effective capital utilization, it may give a fresh perspective on this 'top player' that has been consistently working on the front lines of RWAFi.
2) If the last bull market was dominated by the 'public chain narrative', this round has clearly shifted to the 'yield narrative'. The yield triangle formed by Plume, Ethena, and Ondo represents three different paths: Ethena focuses on stable returns from synthetic dollars, Ondo specializes in traditional fixed income such as government bonds, while Plume chooses a mixed yield strategy—combining TradFi returns with DeFi strategies.
This allows for the combination of the stability of TradFi government bonds and the aggressiveness of DeFi's cyclic leverage; after all, at one point, its yield model is not a castle in the air, as there are over $40 million in RWA circulating funds operating in real-time.
3) What is even more intriguing is the way the giants participate. Traditional financial titans like Apollo, Galaxy, and Fidelity do not simply invest money and wait for returns; they directly issue and deploy assets on Plume. This kind of 'being both a shareholder and a customer' deep binding somewhat solves the toughest cold start problem for RWA—having assets, liquidity, and endorsement, all in one.
That's it.
Of course, even so, the challenges of the RWAFi track still exist, primarily due to regulatory uncertainties and the acceptance level of traditional institutional players. Plume chooses a pragmatic approach to solidify 'capital efficiency' and 'real returns', which are points of concern for traditional institutional players, using a brand new yield narrative to substantiate and drive the value of the underlying infrastructure. This is likely more persuasive than any other grand narrative or vision.
