Kamino Appoints Yieldstreet Veteran Michael Weisz as CEO to Expand Institutional RWA Lending
The lending protocol, which operates on the Solana blockchain, is opening a new headquarters in New York City to target the institutional credit markets.
Bridging Tokenized Assets and Real-World Credit Demand
While the total value of real-world assets (RWAs) on Solana crossed the 4-billion-dollar mark by August 2026 across more than 350,000 wallets, those tokenized holdings see limited utility as active collateral. Weisz, who spent over two decades in fintech and private equity, noted in his transition announcement that tokenization is merely the starting point for market functionality. According to Galaxy Research, the broader technical capability surrounding tokenized assets has outpaced practical utilization, leaving a noticeable gap where credit markets fail to convert emerging asset pools into sustainable borrowing demand.
Comparing Solana RWA Market Share and Transaction Scale
Up to August 18, 2026, Solana accounted for 32 percent of on-chain RWA spot trading and 47 percent of all RWA transactions, yet held just 12 percent of the total RWA market capitalization, which totaled a massive market during that timeframe. Total RWA transaction volume handled on Solana reached billions in value, with a median transaction value of 29 dollars compared to 70 dollars on competing networks. Meanwhile, large institutional instruments like BlackRock’s 741-million-dollar BUIDL fund did not record transactions on Solana during this tracking period.
The Figure Consortium Partnership and Current Lending Metrics
Kamino serves as the exclusive on-chain credit and lending partner for Figure’s RWA consortium, which launched on Solana in December 2025. Figure reports issuing substantial on-chain loans, capturing a 70 percent share of the risqué-weighted private credit market. Kamino’s own August data illustrates the room for expansion in utilization rates: RWAs represented 17.2 percent—or a significant portion—of the Kamino Lend offering, while combined RWA and liquid staking token liabilities remained under 3 million dollars. Concurrently, the PRIME liquid staking product tied to Figure’s credit framework experienced net outflows, leading to ONyc overtaking PRIME as the protocol’s largest RWA asset by offered value.
Network Upgrades and Institutional Growth Strategy
To support complex institutional workflows, Solana activated Transaction V1 on its mainnet, expanding maximum transaction sizes. According to Cryptopolitan reporting, this roughly 3.3-fold capacity increase allows intricate instructions, multi-signature operations, and intensive workloads to process within a single atomic transaction rather than splitting across multiple blocks. Weisz aims to utilize this upgraded technical infrastructure alongside Kamino’s newly formed New York team to convert Solana’s growing pool of tokenized assets into active institutional credit lines.
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