Our ultimate vision is to redefine finance by creating a dynamic, liquid, and composable RWA market.
Written by: ChandlerZ, Foresight News
The on-chain integration of Real World Assets (RWA) is becoming a key link in driving the deep integration of decentralized finance (DeFi) and traditional finance (TradFi). This field has garnered significant attention due to its enormous potential market size and profound impact on the global financial landscape. As an industry pioneer, Plume is redefining the tokenization path of RWA and its potential within the global financial system.
Since its inception, Plume's mission has been clear and bold: to build a dynamic, flexible, and user-friendly financial ecosystem by constructing a dedicated L1 blockchain focused on RWA. On this platform, institutional investors and crypto natives can seamlessly bring assets on-chain, create new asset classes, and achieve deep integration with DeFi. Chris Yin, co-founder and CEO of Plume, stated that they hope to unlock unprecedented market opportunities by combining the flexibility of on-chain assets with institutional-grade investment tools through the innovative concept of "RWAfi."
Changes in the policy environment are paving the way for the rapid development of RWA. With the inauguration of the Trump administration, the anticipated crypto-friendly policies are gradually being realized, and the regulatory framework is evolving towards greater clarity and support. Additionally, large institutions such as BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, and Apollo have already begun to lay out their strategies in the RWA space, further demonstrating the immense potential of this market and the importance of policy drivers.
Plume's innovation not only leads the industry technologically but also showcases its vision in promoting global financial inclusivity. By eliminating the barriers of high-threshold investments in traditional finance, the platform allows ordinary investors to participate in high-value asset classes that were previously exclusive to large institutions, including government bonds, mineral rights, and even collectibles. Moreover, with the introduction of synthetic assets, Plume provides more convenient solutions for diversified investments and complex asset portfolios. With favorable policies, this vision can further unleash its potential. Meanwhile, Plume must also address numerous challenges in the development of the RWA ecosystem, such as liquidity shortages, insufficient technical standardization, and the need for cross-domain user education.
On December 18, 2024, Plume completed a $20 million Series A financing round, raising its total funding to $30 million. This round was participated in by institutions such as Brevan Howard Digital, Haun Ventures, Galaxy Ventures, Lightspeed Faction, Superscrypt, Hashkey, Laser Digital (Nomura Group), A Capital, 280 Capital, SV Angel, and Reciprocal Ventures.
In the future, as the policy framework gradually improves and the technological ecosystem matures, what will the competition and development of the RWAfi market look like? To explore this, Foresight News engaged in an in-depth dialogue with Chris Yin, co-founder and CEO of Plume. In this exclusive interview, Chris Yin provided insights into Plume's technological breakthroughs, market strategies, and its vision for the future of the industry, painting a clear blueprint for the broad prospects of RWA in the global financial landscape.
Foresight News: Why focus on RWA? What market demand or technological gap prompted you to concentrate on bringing Real World Assets (RWA) on-chain when creating Plume? What is the significance of this field for blockchain technology?
Chris Yin:
The founding of Plume stemmed from our realization that both decentralized finance (DeFi) and traditional finance (TradFi) systems lack a comprehensive, end-to-end platform for seamless and almost instantaneous asset tokenization. In short, our mission is to eliminate the barriers that have made RWA deployment overly complex until now. We are building a dynamic, composable ecosystem where institutions and crypto natives can easily bring any real-world item on-chain, open up new asset classes, and benefit a new generation of investors.
Historically, the RWA space has faced three major issues. First, creating a tokenized representation alone is meaningless if the tokenized asset itself lacks value. Second, traditional financial institutions misunderstand how to build DeFi products and how crypto natives use on-chain assets; directly bringing traditional finance into the crypto space is not feasible. Third, due to the lack of a standardized framework for asset tokenization, deploying assets on-chain can take months.
The importance of bringing RWA on-chain lies in our belief that it represents the future of finance: RWAfi (RWA finance). RWAfi adopts a crypto-native approach to build for TradFi—centered around DeFi. This makes institutional-grade assets useful, composable, and open on-chain. RWAfi redefines how people interact with the real value of almost everything, allowing alternative assets like solar energy or natural gas, or collectibles like Pokémon cards or sneakers, to be used for yield farming, circulation, and speculation just like other crypto assets.
Foresight News: Why did Plume decide to develop a dedicated L1 blockchain for RWA? Are existing blockchains unable to meet this demand?
Chris Yin:
We are not only building a blockchain but also creating a fully customized ecosystem for RWA on-chain interactions. By constructing a dedicated L1, we can optimize for the rapid adoption of RWA and demand-driven integration.
We recognize that the core driving force behind the RWA revolution is the tangible market demand, especially for yield-generating assets that provide stability, transparency, and returns. This is precisely where RWAfi comes in—a new paradigm of blockchain finance where tokenized RWA becomes as composable and flexible as native crypto assets. Plume's ultimate vision is to redefine finance by creating a dynamic, liquid, and composable RWA market, making it as flexible as native crypto assets, which can only be achieved through our L1.
Foresight News: How does Plume's vision connect with the core principles of blockchain technology, such as the decentralized finance concept advocated by Bitcoin?
Chris Yin:
At the core of RWAfi and blockchain-based finance is the democratization of financial resources: opening access to highly valuable and stable asset classes that have traditionally only been available to the largest institutional investors in the world. For retail investors, tokenizing assets like mineral rights, oil, and government bonds eliminates barriers such as minimum investment thresholds of millions of dollars, net worth requirements for institutional banking, and the necessity of being in countries with mature financial systems.
Similar to Bitcoin's model, Plume aims to bring the full value of assets to users and reward them for participating in the ecosystem. By giving users all the returns from assets instead of intermediaries and providing incentives for participating in airdrops or staking activities, users are motivated to trade on Plume.
Foresight News: How do you think the tokenization of real assets will impact the traditional financial system? How does this process enhance fairness and efficiency in the global economy?
Chris Yin:
Tokenized assets are fundamentally changing the investment landscape by opening up markets that were previously inaccessible to small investors. Once assets are liquidated, they can unlock broader economic participation opportunities and have the potential to change how value grows and exchanges within the financial system.
Deploying collectibles, real estate, and other alternative investment assets on-chain creates entirely new asset classes and opens up innovative ownership and trading strategies. In particular, this makes fractional ownership possible, allowing individuals to invest in real estate or commodities without needing a mortgage or an oil drilling platform, and hedge against the risks of centralized markets through diversified portfolios.
RWA is key to driving truly borderless markets. Assets like government bonds and currencies allow investors to participate in foreign markets without being physically present in those regions. This is especially revolutionary for Latin America and Africa, where many countries' economies are hindered by soaring inflation and geopolitical instability.
Foresight News: Synthetic assets seem to play an important role in Plume's ecosystem. How do you define their value in the overall RWA solution? What are their technological or economic innovations compared to directly tokenized assets?
Chris Yin:
Synthetic assets are a key component of the Plume ecosystem and one of the reasons Plume can quickly become the most diversified RWA ecosystem in the industry. Beyond the inherent price of their underlying assets, they provide investors with opportunities for fractional ownership and diversified investment categories, which represent significant value.
In principle, synthetic assets allow users in a decentralized ecosystem to access markets that may otherwise be restricted without directly owning or holding the underlying assets. This enables users to access markets that might be limited (such as commodities, government bonds, or currencies) while bypassing common inefficiencies found in centralized markets, such as settlement times and KYC requirements.
Driving Ecosystem Adoption
Foresight News: What role do crypto natives play in the early adoption of RWA? What specific strategies has Plume implemented to attract this audience?
Chris Yin:
Crypto natives are Plume's initial target user group to drive the growth of the RWAfi ecosystem. This community's understanding of the practical applications of RWA, along with their long-standing enthusiasm for lending and staking, enables them to quickly find new uses for RWA. Once the RWAfi ecosystem is established among crypto natives, we can promote it to non-native users, including large institutions and asset management companies.
Plume has launched several incentive programs, including pre-staking activities (StakeStone) conducted in partnership with others, staking activities on Nest, and airdrop activities before the TGE. Our community has responded enthusiastically, with many vaults quickly oversubscribed and tens of thousands of users participating.
Foresight News: How does Plume help traditional finance users who are not yet familiar with crypto technology enter the Web3 space? What specific plans does Plume have to lower the entry barriers?
Chris Yin:
When working with traditional finance users, we introduce DeFi using the language of traditional finance. Our team consists of experienced professionals (including members from JPMorgan, Galaxy Digital, and Robinhood) who leverage our expertise in asset management, capital markets, compliance, and blockchain engineering to help institutions meet the security and regulatory requirements of integrating blockchain technology.
This customized approach encompasses everything from regulatory consulting to developing complex tokenization models.
In the long term, Plume's primary target users are the largest banks and asset management companies globally, which require robust compliance systems, secure custody, and clear regulatory frameworks. Therefore, embedding compliance into the platform's functionality while maintaining a permissionless nature allows us to seamlessly integrate services into institutions and scale to support every dollar of assets they manage.
From Technology to the Future
Foresight News: How do you ensure that the on-chain performance of real assets remains consistent with their real-world value during the process of bringing them on-chain? What unique technologies or structural designs does Plume employ?
Chris Yin:
The key to ensuring that on-chain and off-chain performance aligns is to accurately reflect real market conditions with verified real-time data.
Plume introduces verified real-world data into the platform through its "Data Highway." Our system uses TLSNotary technology to ensure the credibility and accuracy of the data, allowing investors to make decisions based on reliable real-time information—crucial for tracking index funds and predicting economic trends.
Developers can also program smart contracts to automatically execute trades based on real-world market fluctuations.
Foresight News: What do you think are the biggest technical and market challenges currently facing RWA? What are the strategic breakthroughs for Plume?
Chris Yin:
The biggest technical challenge is launching liquidity. Currently, a major issue with bringing new assets on-chain is the lack of supply, which leads to insufficient demand for assets. This results in blockchains essentially acting as storage tools rather than market creators. Plume is addressing this issue by implementing a demand-first approach—focusing on users first.
From a market perspective, the adoption rate of RWA remains low. This is why we are so focused on supporting new use cases—by prioritizing the attraction of crypto natives, we use the language they are familiar with to expand opportunities for on-chain interactions with the real world.
Foresight News: As RWA develops within the Plume ecosystem, what new opportunities and use cases do you foresee? What are your expectations for Plume and the broader RWAfi space in the next 5-10 years?
Chris Yin:
Plume is ushering in a new era of RWA tokenization. Plume provides seamless tokenization solutions for asset issuers, developers, and institutional users while building an ecosystem centered on composability, EVM compatibility, and efficiency. We believe that in the next 5-10 years, the development of RWAfi will transcend traditional financial instruments, encompassing more culturally and socially significant asset classes, such as artworks, collectibles, and natural resource rights. This expansion will not only drive portfolio diversification but also give rise to more complex financial instruments and innovative risk management strategies.
Notably, the Trump administration's rise to power will provide favorable policy support for the development of the crypto space, particularly the RWA market. Trump's supportive stance towards the crypto industry in this term may lead to more relaxed regulatory policies, especially regarding the definitions of crypto assets and tokens. As policies loosen, more traditional financial institutions (such as BlackRock and Fidelity) will accelerate their entry into the RWA market, promoting the compliance of crypto assets. This, in turn, will enhance institutional investor confidence and propel RWAfi projects, particularly compliant ones like Plume, to become industry leaders.
Plume is in a very advantageous position in this environment. As a project focused on RWAfi, Plume not only possesses technological innovation advantages but also has key investors like Katie Haun, whose deep background in U.S. regulatory policy provides strong support for the project's compliance and future development. With the gradual relaxation of crypto policies under the Trump administration, compliant RWAfi projects like Plume will find it easier to gain policy benefits, attracting more market participants and accelerating the prosperity and development of the RWA market.
The potential passage of the FIT21 Act will also provide significant development opportunities for Plume. This act clarifies the regulatory status of decentralized blockchains in the U.S., managing them as commodities rather than securities. This change paves the way for Plume's global expansion, enabling us to quickly adjust our strategy to seize policy benefits and further solidify Plume's position in the RWAfi space.
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