RWA Market Worth $10 Billion, Not $21 Billion, Says Plume CEO

Chris Yin, the co-founder and CEO of Galaxy-backed RWA platform Plume, has stated that the market for real-world assets (RWAs) is still too nascent for institutional adoption. Speaking on the sidelines of a conference in Dubai, Yin emphasized that institutional capital has yet to enter the RWA market and that it will take time for institutions to recognize its value. He compared the current stage of RWA development to the early days of Bitcoin and stablecoins, noting that it took a decade for institutions to begin considering the use of stablecoins.

Yin questioned the accuracy of existing market estimates, which suggest the RWA sector is worth more than $21 billion. He believes the real market cap figure is closer to $10 billion, primarily consisting of Treasury bills and gold, with a small portion of private credit. He also highlighted the difficulty in estimating the size of the global RWA market, particularly on the private side, where data is often fragmented and inaccessible.

According to Yin, the nature of institutional capital is to move in when markets reach a significant scale to make profits. He noted that institutions are primarily interested in tokenized assets as a means to generate more money, rather than for efficiency or cost savings. Yin also pointed out that currently, there are no institutions putting money on-chain, and they are instead trying to extract money from the ecosystem.

Stobox co-founder Ross Shemeliak, however, argued that tokenized assets are fundamentally institutional from day one, as they provide regulated securities, yield-bearing instruments, and financial contracts that require legal compliance and governance. He compared the process to building a stock exchange without regulators, custodians, or settlement layers, emphasizing the need for institutions, fund managers, underwriters, legal advisors, and regulated platforms for serious volume.

Despite the current modest size of the RWA market, Yin believes that the industry should rely more on the native community. He acknowledged that RWA tokenization is small today, similar to the early days of Bitcoin, but emphasized the need for institutions to drive serious volume in the future. Shemeliak also noted that tokenization provides a new mechanism for fundraising, investor engagement, and cap table transparency, particularly for private companies that struggle with access to capital and liquidity.