Kamino has appointed Michael Weisz as chief executive and announced the establishment of an institutional team in New York City focused on converting tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) into lending opportunities. The move reflects a shift in strategy for the largest borrowing protocol on Solana, from asset tokenization to credit utilization.
The total value of RWAs on Solana reached over $4 billion in August across more than 350,000 wallets. Weisz, who co-founded Yieldstreet, a platform for distributing private-market investments, emphasized that tokenization is only the beginning. According to Weisz, the market also requires liquidity, credit, distribution, and infrastructure to function effectively.
Kamino's institutional strategy comprises distribution, legal and compliance, asset-manager operations, and credit and liquidity services. The New York-based team will include professionals from finance, law, product, compliance, and business development, positioning the protocol closer to the asset managers and capital providers it aims to serve.
Activity vs. Utilization Gap
Despite Solana's strong RWA market position, trading activity and credit availability remain limited. During the one-year period through August 18, Solana recorded 32% of on-chain RWA spot trading and 47% of all RWA transactions, while controlling only 12% of total RWA market capitalization. The total dollar value transacted on Solana during this period was $14.7 billion out of $46 billion globally.
Median RWA trades on Solana averaged $29 compared to $70 elsewhere. BlackRock's BUIDL fund, valued at $741 million, did not execute any trades on Solana. Galaxy Research noted that capability now runs ahead of adoption, suggesting much of Solana's tokenized value remains underutilized and lending markets have not yet generated sustainable demand for loans.
Credit Market Performance
Figure, which established an RWA consortium on Solana in December 2025 with Kamino as its exclusive partner for on-chain credit services, claims to have issued over $19 billion in on-chain loans and controls 70% of the RWA private-credit market. However, Kamino's August data shows the credit market remains nascent. RWAs comprised 17.2% of Kamino Lend supply at $426.1 million, while total RWA and liquid-staking-token debt was below $3 million. PRIME, Figure's liquid-staking product connected to the lending framework, reported $13.6 million in net outflows during the period.
Network Capacity Improvements
Solana activated Transaction V1 on mainnet, increasing maximum transaction size from 1,232 to 4,096 bytes, approximately 3.3 times more capacity. The upgrade enables complex instructions, larger multisig operations, and proof-heavy workloads to fit into single atomic transactions rather than being split across multiple transactions.
However, increased network capacity alone does not guarantee greater usage. Kamino's principal challenge remains attracting meaningful credit activity from asset managers, lenders, and borrowers on the Solana platform.
