Real World Assets Are the Big Crypto Narrative — Here’s Why | Chris Yin

On today’s Talking Tokens episode, Jacquelyn sat down with Chris Yin, Co-founder and CEO of Plume Network — a blockchain built for real-world assets (RWAs). Backed by Brevan Howard, Haun Ventures and others, Plume launched mainnet in June 2025 and already accounts for over half of all RWA holders in crypto.

Chris shares how Plume went from a structured product app to a full L2 chain, why most tokenized assets fail, and what it takes to make RWAs actually usable. From community-led DeFi to bottoms-up UX, he breaks down Plume’s strategy for bringing the next billion users onchain and why traction beats headlines.

Timestamps

(0:00) - What is Plume Network?

(1:32) - Chris’s background: DeFi summer, yield farming, and app-layer insights

(2:15) - Why most tokenized assets fail: no usage, no velocity

(4:03) - Why Plume had to build its own chain

(5:42) - Tokenization isn’t enough — here’s what else matters

(8:01) - RWAs as crypto’s biggest opportunity (bigger than all DeFi)

(9:33) - Stable yield, composability, and how users interact with assets

(12:16) - What makes tokenized assets actually usable

(14:00) - Top-down vs bottoms-up tokenization

(16:00) - Mineral Vault onboarded 80K holders in a month

(19:12) - Plume’s Phase 2: onboarding non-crypto users

(20:30) - Why real traction > flashy launches

(22:41) - The real numbers behind RWA growth

(25:50) - Plume’s 2025 goal: $1B in clean, onchain RWA value

(27:48) - Structured products will unlock the next wave

(30:50) - Long-term vision: an onchain BlackRock

(32:10) - It’s not about one asset — it’s the full stack

(36:36) - Honoring Co-Founder Eugene Chen

(39:25) - Final advice: focus long-term, but adapt fast

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