From a data perspective, the RWA narrative is undoubtedly the clearest Alpha direction for 'blockchain+' in the next ten years.
RWA research platform rwa.xyz statistics show that the total market size for RWA currently exceeds $15 billion, with Fidelity predicting that this number will double to $30 billion by 2025. BlackRock is even more optimistic, anticipating that the market value of tokenized assets will reach $10 trillion by 2030.
In other words, in the next seven years, the potential growth space of the RWA narrative could exceed 700 times! However, hidden behind this is a core question: who will truly capture the incremental value of this epic narrative?
Source: rwa.xyz
This should also be the billion-dollar question for the entire RWA track in the future, and the answer may be hidden within the infrastructure surrounding the RWAfi public chain.
RWAfi, the historic bus for RWA
Essentially, moving real-world assets (RWA) on-chain is merely the first step in completing tokenization, which is far from unlocking their true potential — to further realize value release on-chain, more efficient underlying technical infrastructure, an open toolkit of foundational infrastructure, and a well-coordinated ecosystem are required.
In simple terms, the on-chain transformation of RWA requires not only technological breakthroughs but also a complete service framework around the entire lifecycle of RWA assets, especially to safely and easily bring RWA assets into diversified on-chain DeFi scenarios, completely transforming the existing value of traditional assets into incremental on-chain value.
This is precisely the point of RWAfi. Under the framework of tokenization, RWA not only greatly enhances its liquidity but can also obtain DeFi yields through operations like lending and staking, introducing real yield asset support to DeFi and strengthening the value foundation of the crypto market.
Vitalik Buterin once made an interesting analogy: every blockchain network has a unique 'soul', some deeply engage in a specific DeFi scenario, some focus on NFT, DAO ecosystems, and others are dedicated to incubating ZK applications, etc.
However, when we turn our attention to the RWA ecosystem, we find a fascinating reality: despite the heat of RWA, there are very few RWAfi public chains specifically serving for the management and on-chain circulation of real-world assets — even Ethereum, Avalanche, and others that have deeply laid out in the RWA direction were not born to carry trillions of dollars of real-world assets.
The reason is simple: the core mission of RWAfi is to allow real-world assets to circulate freely on-chain. Therefore, compared to DeFi and other on-chain applications, its challenge lies not only in addressing the complexity of traditional on-chain applications like DeFi but in how to make RWA truly 'active' on-chain:
On the one hand, certifying real-world assets 'on-chain' involves complex asset tokenization processes and multi-party collaboration, which requires solving issues such as security compliance, liquidity, cross-chain interoperability, and a developer-friendly technical environment to achieve efficient liquidity and transparency for on-chain assets;
On the other hand, simply completing tokenization is not enough. After 'going on-chain', there is also 'empowerment', meaning that the true value of RWA lies in how to construct a transparent, efficient, and highly liquid on-chain financial market through blockchain technology. Therefore, further integration of DeFi protocols, yield distribution, and risk management will be needed to provide RWA with liquidity, composability, and interoperability similar to crypto assets;
Taking real estate as an example, after completing tokenization and going on-chain, it is no longer a 'static' asset in the traditional sense; it can participate in diverse DeFi scenarios, such as achieving transparent distribution of rental income through smart contracts or using it as collateral for on-chain financing. This 'empowerment' raises higher technical and ecological requirements while breaking the inherent limitations of RWA as real assets, injecting higher dimensions of composability and application potential.
Therefore, perhaps many people do not realize that RWAfi is not just a technical solution; it fundamentally creates a new asset class with native real yield properties — by introducing real-world assets, capital, and cash flow, it injects native 'real yield attributes' into the blockchain ecosystem.
In this context, although many blockchain networks have begun to explore the RWA field, most are still superficial, lacking comprehensive technical support and ecological layout. After all, the success of RWAfi lies not only in completing asset tokenization but also in offering a complete solution from development to operation:
Developers and users need a more accessible development resource environment, more efficient and scalable infrastructure, and a safer and compliant underlying environment. Thus, the core demand for the future trillion or even multi-trillion dollar RWA incremental market is evident — a dedicated RWA public chain.
It can simultaneously meet the diverse needs of institutional users and crypto-native users. In this vision, the RWAfi public chain is not just empowering RWA assets but is likely to become the core value capture for the incremental value of the RWA ecosystem. By becoming a hub for liquidity and value settlement, all DeFi operations surrounding RWA tokenized assets (such as farming and collateral interactions) can converge value through the RWAfi public chain, further promoting the incremental expansion of the RWA track.
In short, L1 public chains dedicated to RWA are merely a means, not an end — those players who can truly capture the incremental value of the RWA track are likely the ones that can provide comprehensive solutions covering the entire chain from on-chain infrastructure to ecological empowerment, enabling the entire RWA process from 'going on-chain' to 'empowerment' to operate seamlessly and efficiently.
Therefore, from this perspective, the golden age of dedicated RWA chains has already arrived.
Analyzing the new interpretation of 'one-stop RWA dedicated chain' from Plume
For RWAfi, there is also a natural advantage that secures its position:
No matter which track or product under the RWA narrative ultimately emerges, as long as the overall market size continues to grow, the RWAfi public chain platform that provides the most fundamental support in the form of infrastructure can tap into future markets worth hundreds of billions or even trillions, capturing the incremental value behind it.
After all, RWA has gradually become the main driving force for the increase of on-chain digital assets, enabling Web3 to effectively reach the vast asset pool of traditional markets — for example, the global bond market (over $133 trillion) and the gold market (over $13.5 trillion).
Since Compound ignited the DeFi summer in 2020, the overall volume of digital assets in the on-chain world has seen significant growth. Even though it faces a substantial pullback compared to the $180 billion in November 2021, as of January 13, 2025, the on-chain TVL still amounts to $11.35 billion.
Source: DeFiLlama
However, compared to the tokenizable RWA assets worth trillions of dollars (bonds, gold, stocks, real estate, etc.), this scale still seems trivial. Therefore, RWA tokenization will undoubtedly bring a new incremental force to the on-chain world, creating unprecedented incremental market space.
However, there are currently very few L1 public chains positioned around RWAfi. Recently, Plume completed a new round of financing of $20 million and is almost the only strictly defined RWAfi public chain, which can be regarded as a landmark financing event in the RWAfi field so far.
The notable feature of Plume lies in its modular design, systematically solving the issues of RWA tokenization, compliance, liquidity, and interoperability through a one-stop solution, providing developers and institutions with a complete solution covering the entire lifecycle of RWA tokenization.
This systematic model is worth paying attention to, after all, for a public chain, how 'high-end' the technology is does not matter; the core competitiveness lies in whether it can attract developers and users to choose you and settle down, especially for products like RWA that involve highly complex on-chain and off-chain interactions. If only fragmented services for certain segments are provided, developers and institutional users will not pay.
Plume's advantage lies in its integration of multiple modular key tools, providing developers with a complete solution for RWA asset tokenization. This toolkit not only lowers the technical barrier but also incorporates compliance suppliers directly into the platform's upstream supply chain, ensuring that tokenized assets meet regulatory requirements from the source:
Arc - Tokenization engine: Arc simplifies the tokenization process by integrating compliance workflows and reducing barriers for asset issuers, providing an effective path for bringing RWA on-chain;
Passport - Smart wallet: Passport allows users to directly store contract code in their externally owned accounts (EOA), supporting RWAfi composability, yield management, and advanced account abstraction functions;
Nexus - Data highway: Nexus securely integrates real-world data into the blockchain using cutting-edge technologies like zkTLS, enhancing the security and transparency of on-chain assets while releasing new opportunity scenarios;
Through these modular tools, Plume not only empowers developers but also significantly lowers the entry barrier for traditional financial institutions into Web3 — developers can quickly deploy complex RWA solutions by reducing technical barriers through modular tools; a 'compliance-as-a-service' model can also help traditional institutions address compliance pain points while providing efficient technical support.
This means that Web2 giants like UBS and Blackstone, looking to enter Web3, can directly embed RWA tokenization services into their existing products through the one-stop RWA asset tokenization services provided by Plume, quickly achieving product iteration and market expansion.
This not only allows institutions to easily tokenize assets and bring them into the blockchain ecosystem but also retains the smooth user experience of Web2, empowering users with asset autonomy and Web3 attributes.
From a more macro perspective, in the previous Web2 world where private domain traffic reigned, whoever could corral enough private domain traffic could maximize their returns. This led to a situation where Web2 formed large applications and thin protocols, with super apps like WeChat, Alipay, and Meituan becoming increasingly massive, locking users into closed ecosystems.
In Web3, the product logic has clearly flipped — products in the form of underlying components or middleware are increasingly favored, as they can be inserted as 'building blocks' or serve as foundational infrastructure to obtain maximum aggregation benefits. Plume's modular infrastructure perfectly aligns with this Web3 product logic, providing traditional financial institutions and Web2 giants with lightweight RWA integration tools, enabling them to quickly achieve Web3 transformation.
This is where Plume's appeal lies. For the RWAfi track, future competition will not only be a contest of technical capabilities but also whether it can design an efficient and friendly ecological support system around developers and users. This model, connecting on-chain innovation with off-chain assets, will become the true watershed for the development of the RWA track.
RWAfi's inevitable path: the two-way link between institutions and DeFi 'friend circles'
For Web3, 'incremental' is an eternal theme — whether it is the injection of incremental funds or the expansion of incremental users.
The core charm of RWAfi lies precisely in its inherent 'two-way connection' attribute: on the one hand, linking new and old players in Web3, and on the other hand, connecting to the massive pool of traditional financial assets. This not only provides crypto-native users with new asset classes and yield opportunities but also opens up pathways for traditional financial giants to deeply integrate with the on-chain DeFi world, thus achieving a '1+1>2' synergy.
Taking Plume as an example, it currently builds a 'dual approach' ecological network centered on institutional partners and extended by DeFi partners:
Institutional partners: responsible for providing compliance, trust foundation, and high-quality assets, they are the trusted core of the RWAfi ecosystem;
DeFi partners: provide flexible and high-yield asset participation methods for on-chain users, further enhancing the liquidity and composability of RWA;
If you look closely, you will find that Plume's institutional circle mainly focuses on the tokenization, compliance, and asset management of traditional assets, thus enabling RWA to gain higher liquidity and transparency through Plume's on-chain infrastructure, paving the way for the deep integration of traditional financial giants and RWAfi, for example:
Anchorage Digital Bank: provides compliant custody services for Plume's on-chain assets, allowing institutional clients direct access to RWA yields on-chain;
DeFiMaseer: an institutional partner focusing on tokenization in the carbon market, putting $200 million in carbon emission quotas on-chain to optimize the efficiency and accessibility of the regulatory market;
DigiFT + UBS: collaborating to launch uMint, promoting the tokenization of financial assets on-chain;
Dinari Global + Blackstone: bringing Blackstone's ETFs on-chain to provide higher liquidity for institutional assets;
Elixir + Blackstone: supporting Elixir in building more asset circulation infrastructure on-chain;
NestCredit + MountainUSDM + m0 Foundation + Anemoy Capital/Centrifuge: building a multi-party cooperation network to promote the sustainable development of diversified assets on-chain.
Pistachiofi: introducing on-chain real yield services to Latin America (LATAM) and Asia-Pacific (APAC), expanding regional market coverage;
Busha: providing on-chain real yield for the African market, broadening the boundaries of global financial services;
Cultured RWA: exploring the on-chain potential of the RWA speculative ecosystem;
Google Cloud: utilizing AI to provide RWA pricing services, making on-chain asset pricing smarter and more efficient;
Moreover, the DeFi protocols that have reached deep integration or cooperation with Plume mainly convert the existing value of traditional assets into incremental value on-chain through Plume, such as providing liquidity support, optimizing yields, and exploring new scenarios to offer diverse participation opportunities for on-chain users:
Ondo finance: the leading protocol for tokenizing U.S. Treasuries (USDY), injecting credible asset liquidity into Plume's RWA ecosystem;
Anzen finance: supports the on-chain stable asset innovation of USDz, optimizing the tokenization experience of dollar-related assets;
Royco (Berachain): provides a transparent yield liquidity market designed specifically for DApp construction, expanding into the RWAfi ecosystem through collaboration with Plume;
Bouncebit: as a partner of the CeDeFi portal, helps users access trusted institutional-grade yield products through its platform, strengthening RWAfi's influence in the CeDeFi field;
Midas: a DeFi project focused on high-yield, institutional-grade assets, providing Plume's users with more on-chain yield options;
PinLink: a DeFi infrastructure provider, collaborating with Plume to introduce fragmented DePIN assets and yield opportunities, enhancing ecological liquidity;
Avalon finance: Plume's BTCfi liquidity layer partner, focusing on the lending and circulation of BTC in the RWAfi environment, further expanding the application scenarios of on-chain assets;
Objectively speaking, the Plume team background comes with a 'technology + market' gene — members include Degen players from Web3 giants like Coinbase, BNB Chain, Galaxy Digital, as well as seasoned professionals from traditional finance and tech industries like Robinhood, JP Morgan, Google. This enables them to better address the complex needs of traditional financial markets while leveraging the unique advantages of blockchain technology to create modular, compliance-friendly infrastructure.
Overall, Plume has already built a massive ecological layer involving new and old participants in Web3 (covering both on-chain and token areas) and traditional financial giants (involving off-chain and RWA domains), accumulating over 180 applications and protocols, with the testnet already attracting over 3.75 million users and generating hundreds of millions of transactions, yielding remarkable results.
The dual-driven cooperation network has also formed an ecological layout jointly promoted by new and old players in Web3 (on-chain, DeFi protocols) and traditional financial giants (off-chain, RWA), with Plume serving as an indispensable infrastructure role between the two. As the RWAfi ecosystem continues to develop, it is expected to become a necessity.
This further solidifies Plume's unique positioning as 'dedicated RWAfi full-chain infrastructure', capable of directly capturing the core value generated from the tokenization, liquidity integration, and on-chain operations of RWA assets — from asset minting to deep integration into DeFi scenarios, it can provide complete technical and ecological support, truly realizing the seamless transformation of traditional asset value into incremental on-chain value.
From this perspective, this 'full lifecycle empowerment' is precisely the irreplaceable competitive advantage of RWAfi public chains like Plume. RWAfi public chains not only serve institutions and developers but also directly target all RWA users, capturing the participation value of end users, thereby sharing the dividends of the entire RWA ecosystem's scaling growth and becoming the core engine driving the expansion of a trillion-dollar market.
Interestingly, as a sector closely related to regulation, Plume actually has a potential policy advantage that is easily overlooked: Plume's investor Katie Haun has served as Assistant U.S. Attorney and Digital Currency Coordinator, a former partner at a16z, and joined the Coinbase board, making her one of the few in the crypto industry who deeply understands the profound impact of U.S. regulation on the blockchain industry.
This also means that her investment background brings Plume closer to the center of regulatory policy, which is undoubtedly a positive signal for Plume — with the gradual improvement of the U.S. regulatory framework, especially after January 20th when a series of crypto-friendly individuals from the Trump administration took office, Plume is expected to become the RWAfi project closest to the 'core of U.S. regulation', thus directly benefiting from the largest policy support and market dividends.
Conclusion
The wind rises at the end of the green, and the logic of the market has always been a subtle thread. The value discovery of all narratives has its inherent development logic.
It can be said that RWAfi is one of the few narratives able to build bridges between on-chain and off-chain, with its potential stemming from both the innovation of Web3 and the massive existing asset dividends of traditional finance.
The value of the RWAfi public chain is self-evident — as an infrastructure that can truly elevate RWA tokenization to the 'RWA Asset Internet', it provides a viable answer for the billion-dollar growth of the RWA narrative.
As for whether leading players like Plume, which grasps both on-chain (DeFi) and off-chain (traditional financial institutions), can emerge successfully in the future, it depends on whether they can continuously attract developers and solidify the ecosystem, allowing the on-chain and off-chain integration of RWA to truly flourish. After all, an unclaimed blue ocean implies that the opportunity is just beginning, and everything remains uncertain.
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