While broader markets remain under pressure, real-world assets (RWAs) emerge as one of the few sectors still attracting ongoing interest. The market has grown by over 150% this year. Chris Yen, the co-founder and CEO of the Plume platform, predicts it could expand at a rate of 10x to 20x in terms of value and user adoption over the next year, even under conservative assumptions.
During an interview with BeInCrypto, Yin explained why real-world assets are gaining momentum at this stage of the market. He also clarified why they could remain a core focus during the next market cycle.
Why are investors choosing real-world assets (RWA) in 2025?
In the fourth quarter, the broader cryptocurrency market faced significant pressures, forcing many to exit. However, the real-world asset sector managed to attract interest from both individuals and institutions.
Data from the RWA.xyz platform showed that the total number of asset holders increased by 103.7% over the past month. This indicates growing engagement even as market sentiment wanes.
According to the co-founder of Plume,
The co-founder of Plume stated that the real-world asset market is experiencing significant growth due to cross-sector interest in reality-linked on-chain assets. There is a level of certainty, in an environment that has not been fully bearish nor fully bullish.
As the economic slowdown continues overall, Yin emphasized that investors have become more cautious regarding the volatility and sustainability of yields across decentralized finance markets. In turn, real-world assets are increasingly being positioned as a source of more stable yields.
As decentralized finance yields are under pressure and economic uncertainty continues, tokenized treasury bonds or private credit instruments are starting to look more attractive on a risk-adjusted basis.
He also noted the rapid growth of stablecoins this year as evidence of the broader shift towards stability in the market, especially among institutional participants.
Yin told BeInCrypto that with stablecoins forming the foundation for the integration of real-world assets, the next logical step in developing yield currencies and opportunities for these assets is emerging. People are looking for high-quality assets that generate safe, consistent, and reliable yields. Stablecoins attract users, and yield opportunities are what drive institutions and individuals toward these assets.
As investors continue to turn towards stability, Yin also acknowledged that one of the main concerns associated with real-world assets is the perception that they pose additional risks regarding customer identification and compliance.
He argued that tokenization could actually enhance regulatory oversight, as it enables the programmability of identity verification, access rights, and transfer restrictions at the asset level itself.
Instead of relying on fragmented compliance processes that are not linked to blockchains, issuers can enforce rules directly within the token via real-time eligibility checks, automated reporting, and immutable audit trails.
Real assets are expected to remain a core topic in the market in the upcoming cycle.
He noted that while real-world assets continue to gain momentum this year, Yin said that the sector is likely to remain a consistent focus for both traditional finance and decentralized finance in the next market cycle.
He indicated that currently, the majority of the value of real-world assets is concentrated in tokenized treasury bills, but as the market matures, Yin expects an increase in private funding alongside a broader range of alternative assets.
This exposure could include tokenized rights to commodities like oil; additionally, it could encompass GPUs, energy infrastructure, and other real-world resources.
The executive commented that the winners will be those who identify these opportunities, not just those who double down on what has worked so far.
Last month, Coinbase Ventures highlighted that perpetual contracts for real assets are one of the categories they are actively seeking to fund in 2026, indicating strong confidence. Yin also revealed that the company has remained consistently optimistic about perpetual contracts for real assets.
According to Yin, perpetual contracts often achieve trading volumes that significantly exceed those in spot markets, largely due to the superior user experience they provide. He explained that perpetual contracts are user-friendly, allowing participants to take directional positions easily while also incorporating leverage.
Yin clarified that the Plume team has always said that the way to make real assets work on the blockchain is to make real assets serve the blockchain audience by providing a user experience familiar to crypto natives. For instant transactions, this is done by making them permissionless, composable, and liquid, which is what we are doing through the Nest protocol for real asset yields on Plume. Another way that crypto users deal with assets is through perpetual contracts, which is why we are optimistic and excited about this type and what can be achieved for real assets.
Yin also drew attention to the increasing innovation around real yield, claiming that it is reshaping how yield is accessed and traded on the blockchain.
For example, Yin pointed to Pendle, noting that separating the protocol for the underlying asset from the yield has introduced a new market structure for tokenized cash flow streams.
Yin reported that alongside individual protocols, real assets are gaining momentum in multiple blockchain systems.
Yin noted that the wave of real assets on Solana shows what happens when yield becomes fast, programmable, and accessible to millions of users.
Yin pointed out that Solana's speed and ability to process transactions make it one of the few networks capable of supporting high-frequency high-yield operations on a broad scale. This capability becomes increasingly important as real-world assets evolve from passive income tools to a more active and tradable yield economy.
Yin said that the ongoing experiments there seem to be a glimpse into the next chapter of the real-world asset sector. Tools that bring real-world assets directly onto the chain in a native crypto way are the exciting areas. The class of perpetual real-world asset contracts is certainly one of these categories, but there are also a variety of new asset categories like sports/Pokemon cards with Tradible, as well as new financial instruments like insurance with Cork and many more.
Yin pointed out alongside this expansion that regulatory and legislative compliance will remain a central priority. He clarified that projects that take compliance seriously are likely to emerge as long-term winners, especially as demand from governments and large institutions for embedded regulatory assurances and clearer standards for issuing assets on-chain increases.
What do you expect from the RWA sector in 2026?
Yin predicted that looking ahead, three major growth factors will drive the real-world asset sector towards new horizons over the next 12 months. He first pointed to the continued adoption and growth of real-world assets from the bottom up.
Yin mentioned that the value of real-world assets has more than tripled over the past year. Additionally, the number of holders of real-world assets has grown more than sevenfold.
Yin stated that the launch of Plume's mainnet nearly doubled the base of holders of real-world assets, and he believes this momentum will continue within the same original crypto audience where real-world assets still represent a very small part of the total market capitalization of crypto.
Yin highlighted secondly the increasing alignment from the top down from institutions and regulators. In his view, governments, financial institutions, and tech companies are now actively focusing on tokenization. While these initiatives usually take time to materialize, Yin believes their eventual implementation could bring assets worth billions of dollars onto the chain.
A Plume official finally pointed out that the general macroeconomic conditions are considered an additional structural driver for growth.
Yin revealed to BeInCrypto that the current macroeconomic conditions mean that people both on-chain and off-chain are constantly searching for stable yields, and alternative assets continue to gain importance, both paving the way for more organic growth of real-world assets on-chain.
Yin concluded that there are few reasons to expect a slowdown in momentum, given the number of stimulating factors in the landscape. In his opinion,
Yin stated that seeing growth in value and users at a rate of ten to twenty times over the next year is the bare minimum that can be expected.
Real-world assets are increasingly viewed as a structural shift rather than just a short-term trend in 2026. With growing adoption, an expanding range of assets, and enhanced compliance, the sector appears poised to play a pivotal role in the next phase of growth for on-chain transactions.
