Kamino names Michael Weisz CEO as its RWA push shifts to credit

On Tuesday, Kamino has appointed Michael Weisz as the chief executive and announced the establishment of an institutional team in New York City, which focuses on a more important question than whether real-world assets (RWAs) can be tokenized: can the approximately $4 billion worth of RWAs on Solana be leveraged for loans instead of sitting stagnant? On this front, Solana has answered the first question. The total value of RWAs on Solana reached over $4 billion in August across more than 350,000 wallets. The largest borrowing protocol in Solana, Kamino, decided that the next stage must come from converting the tokenized value into continuous demand for lending. Why a Yieldstreet veteran is running a Solana protocol Weisz co-founded Yieldstreet, known as Willow Wealth, where he took part in growing distribution for private-market investments. While announcing his move to Kamino on his LinkedIn account, he also emphasized that tokenization was just the beginning of it all. In order for the market to work, it also needs liquidity, credit, distribution, and infrastructure. Kamino also announced his appointment in its X account. Kamino’s institutional approach comprises the following points: distribution, legal and compliance, asset-manager operations, as well as credit and liquidity. Kamino is currently forming a new team in New York which will involve professionals from finance, law, product, compliance, and business development, putting it closer to the asset managers, financial platforms and capital providers it wants to serve. Market size is not market utility In terms of RWAs, Solana’s numbers appear good, but that does not necessarily correlate with trading activities and the availability of credit facilities. For the one-year period until August 18, Solana recorded 32% of on-chain RWA spot trading and 47% of all RWA transactions, while controlling a mere 12% of the total RWA market capitalization. In other words, the total dollar value transacted through Solana up to this point is $14.7 billion out of $46 billion total in the period. The median RWA trade through the Solana network was $29 compared to $70 elsewhere, while BlackRock’s BUIDL fund of $741 million did not execute any trades over Solana. A publication from the FinTech journal in July on RWAs built on Ethereum showcased similar realities: tokenization does not provide any liquidity on its own, and there is no guarantee that greater asset values correlate with higher trading activity. The research covers Ethereum and doesn’t address Solana directly, so the comparison is directional rather than direct.