Kamino Brings in Yieldstreet Founder for Wall Street Expansion
With a New York office and former Yieldstreet executive Michael Weisz, Kamino wants to get closer to asset managers and institutional capital. At the same time, the Solana protocol is expanding into tokenized real-world assets.
Key Takeaways
- Kamino is opening a New York office and naming Yieldstreet founder Michael Weisz as CEO for its Wall Street expansion.
- The Solana lending protocol is expanding from crypto lending into tokenized real-world assets and will use the PRIME market, among other things, for that move.
- Kamino says it has processed more than $650 billion in cumulative transaction volume over four years and sees tokenization as a growth market.
Kamino, one of the largest lending protocols on Solana with $1.4 billion (€1.2 billion) in assets, is opening an office in New York as it looks to get closer to Wall Street and expand into tokenized assets. The crypto company named Yieldstreet founder Michael Weisz as CEO on Tuesday to lead that move.
New Leadership in New York
Kamino is looking at about 20,000 square feet of office space in New York and also wants to hire a chief financial officer and a head of legal. Weisz previously founded the alternative investment platform Yieldstreet, now called Willow Wealth, which Kamino says has deployed more than $6 billion (€5.2 billion) alongside firms like Goldman Sachs, Carlyle, KKR, and Ares.
Weisz said having a base in New York brings Kamino closer to asset managers, distribution platforms, and institutional capital. That makes sense for Kamino, since the company does not just want to lend crypto, but also build a bridge to firms that want to bring traditional financial products onchain.
From Crypto Lending to Tokenized Assets
Kamino lets users lend crypto or borrow against it. It is now expanding that model into tokenized real-world assets, where investors can get financing or use those assets as collateral after they are put onchain.
The PRIME market, which Kamino developed together with Figure Technologies and Hastra, uses blockchain-based home equity loans from Figure as collateral. According to Kamino, more than $600 million (€520 million) in deposits had already flowed in there about three months after launch. Nasdaq-listed Solana treasury firm Forward Industries and digital asset manager Galaxy also use Kamino's infrastructure for tokenized equity and U.S. Treasury positions.
Tokenization Is Drawing More Capital
The move fits into a broader trend where tokenization is getting more and more attention from Wall Street. Citi says the market for tokenized securities could reach $5.5 trillion (€4.8 trillion) by 2030, while the global market for asset tokenization was already valued at $1.8 trillion (€1.6 trillion) in 2025 and could grow to $2.1 trillion (€1.8 trillion) in 2026. For European crypto followers, that shows DeFi is no longer just about native tokens, but also about infrastructure for traditional assets.
Kamino says it has processed more than $650 billion (€563 billion) in cumulative transaction volume over the past four years. The expansion into New York and tokenized collateral shows the protocol is clearly positioning itself at the intersection of crypto, credit, and traditional asset managers.
