Key Highlights
- Michael Weisz, co-founder of Yieldstreet, has been named chief executive of Kamino, a prominent Solana lending platform managing $1.4 billion in total value locked
- The protocol is establishing a New York City headquarters and recruiting senior executives including a CFO and legal counsel to pursue institutional partnerships
- Kamino’s PRIME marketplace has attracted over $600 million in deposits within its first three months of operation
- While Solana’s tokenized real-world asset ecosystem has exceeded $4 billion in value, actual borrowing activity remains minimal with under $3 million in RWA-backed debt on Kamino
- Solana’s mainnet deployment of Transaction V1 has expanded maximum transaction capacity threefold to accommodate sophisticated institutional operations
In a strategic move to bridge decentralized finance with traditional capital markets, [[LINK_START_0]]Kamino[[LINK_END_0]]—a leading lending protocol on the Solana blockchain—has appointed Michael Weisz as chief executive officer. The announcement signals the platform’s ambition to attract institutional investors and conventional asset management firms.
Before joining Kamino, Weisz established Yieldstreet (rebranded as Willow Wealth), a platform that facilitated over $6 billion in alternative investments with partnerships spanning major financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs, Carlyle Group, KKR, and Ares Management. His background in private markets and institutional capital deployment positions him to navigate Kamino’s expansion into mainstream finance.
The protocol currently maintains $1.4 billion in total assets under management and has facilitated more than $650 billion in aggregate transaction volume since its inception four years ago. Kamino enables participants to supply cryptocurrency assets for yield generation or secure loans using digital collateral.
Manhattan Office to Anchor Institutional Strategy
As part of its institutional outreach initiative, Kamino is establishing corporate headquarters in New York City, evaluating approximately 20,000 square feet of commercial space. The company plans to recruit key executives including a chief financial officer and general counsel to build institutional capabilities.
“Establishing our presence in New York positions Kamino at the nexus of institutional asset managers, distribution channels, and capital sources that will shape the evolution of blockchain-based finance,” Weisz explained.
The New York operation will assemble specialists across finance, legal affairs, product development, regulatory compliance, and strategic partnerships. This geographic positioning aims to foster closer relationships with the capital allocators and institutional investors Kamino seeks to onboard.
The protocol is broadening its scope to encompass tokenized real-world assets—conventional financial instruments such as equities, fixed income, and investment funds represented on blockchain infrastructure. Analysts at Citi estimate the market for tokenized securities could expand to $5.5 trillion within the next six years.
Strong Deposit Growth Masks Limited Borrowing Activity
Kamino’s PRIME offering, developed in collaboration with Figure Technologies and Hastra, accepts Figure’s blockchain-native home equity credit lines as underlying collateral. The product accumulated more than $600 million in user deposits approximately three months following its introduction.
Figure Technologies has originated over $19 billion in blockchain-recorded loans and commands an estimated 70% market share in the private credit RWA segment. This alliance provides Kamino with direct exposure to legitimate borrower repayment streams.
However, beneath impressive deposit figures, actual credit utilization remains surprisingly modest. Real-world assets represented 17.2% of Kamino’s lending supply in August—approximately $426 million—yet combined debt backed by RWAs and liquid staking derivatives totaled less than $3 million.
PRIME experienced $13.6 million in net withdrawals during August, while a rival product named ONyc surpassed it to become the leading RWA asset by supplied capital.
Across Solana’s broader ecosystem, the pattern repeats. The network hosts more than $4 billion in tokenized assets distributed among over 350,000 wallet addresses. Yet the median RWA transaction on Solana measured just $29, substantially below the $70 median observed on competing platforms.
Notable institutional adopters including publicly-traded Forward Industries and digital asset investment firm Galaxy utilize Kamino’s infrastructure for tokenized equity holdings and United States Treasury positions.
Coinciding with Weisz’s appointment, Solana deployed Transaction V1 to its production network. This technical enhancement increases maximum transaction capacity from 1,232 bytes to 4,096 bytes, accommodating more sophisticated institutional operations within individual transactions.
Analysts at Galaxy Research observed that “technical capability now outpaces actual adoption” and suggested the latter half of 2026 will reveal whether meaningful utilization materializes.
Weisz faces the fundamental challenge of converting substantial tokenized asset deposits into meaningful borrowing activity—the metric that ultimately determines protocol sustainability.
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