Chris Yin is the CEO and co-founder of Plume, a technology company focused on smart home services. ^[2]

Career

Yin began his career in traditional web2 software, co-founding several companies that initially focused on common consumer-facing applications before transitioning to internal tools such as accounting and business automation software. These tools, built to solve firsthand problems he and his team experienced, gained traction, leading to a successful exit. He then joined Cooper, where he helped scale operations and take the company public, deepening his experience in product leadership and organizational growth.

He held early product roles at Xpenser, a startup focused on expense tracking, which was acquired by Coupa Software in 2013. Following the acquisition, Yin joined Coupa as director of product management, contributing to expenses, inventory, and mobile functionality until the company’s IPO in 2016.

In 2017, Yin became VP of Product at Rainforest QA, a distributed QA platform. There, he oversaw product, design, support, and community functions. Working with a globally distributed workforce, he recognized the significance of community-driven ecosystems and the value of aligning product decisions with user needs. Repeated feedback from contributors—particularly in Latin America and Eastern Europe—highlighted a desire to be paid in BTC or ETH instead of local currencies. This marked his entry into crypto, as he began seeing blockchain as a viable solution for global value transfer.

Around the time of DeFi Summer, Yin became more actively involved in the crypto space through participation in decentralized finance and other blockchain applications. The permissionless nature of Web3 ecosystems stood in contrast to the rigid systems of the traditional world, revealing to him a dynamic environment for open experimentation and innovation. He continued exploring the space while working full time and began angel investing in startups such as Retool, WhatNot, BioRender, and Hex.

From 2019 to 2023, Yin served as a principal at Scale Venture Partners, focusing on enterprise investments across applications, infrastructure, and vertical markets. In 2024, he founded Plume Network, a project that brought real-world assets and systems on-chain. This marked his full-time transition into Web3, integrating his background in software, venture capital, and global community design. ^{[1] [3] [4]}

Interviews

Stablecoins and RWAs

On The Rollup podcast, Yin discussed the potential of stablecoins and real-world assets (RWAs) as vital components of the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Yin explained that while the speculative side of cryptocurrency has attracted significant attention, stablecoins and RWAs provide a more stable and practical avenue for users, especially amidst disillusionment with speculative trends like meme coins. He noted that many individuals and institutions lack a clear understanding of RWAs, and a considerable gap exists between traditional finance (TradFi) products and their on-chain equivalents. He emphasized that the future of crypto should focus on bottom-up adoption, where solutions are developed to meet the needs of crypto natives first, enabling a more significant integration of traditional financial products later. Despite the challenges of regulatory requirements around access to traditional investment vehicles, Yin highlighted the importance of creating innovative, user-friendly products that could allow for greater liquidity and efficiency in the crypto market. ^[5]

Plume

On the Amberdata Podcast, Yin discussed his background and the inception of Plume, a blockchain platform to enhance the accessibility and efficiency of real-world asset tokenization. His journey began with a career in enterprise software, leading to a foray into angel investing and crypto through involvement with a distributed testing service called Rainforest. Recognizing the limitations of existing DeFi applications, he and his co-founders sought to leverage real-world assets (RWAs) for broader onboarding into crypto. Plume has since fostered an ecosystem supporting over 180 projects and managing approximately $5 billion in assets, focusing on integrating RWAs into blockchain systems to promote liquidity and efficiency across various markets. Yin emphasized the potential for stablecoins to facilitate this integration, particularly in emerging markets, by providing familiar, stable currency options for users previously excluded from traditional financial systems. ^[6]

Presentations

Keynote Speech

In a keynote at Plume Denver 2025, Yin discussed the challenges faced by the cryptocurrency ecosystem, emphasizing the decline in Bitcoin prices and overall market sentiment. He reflected on the rapid changes in the crypto landscape over the past year, highlighting the disillusionment stemming from political events and perceived failures in the market. Yin critiqued the adoption of Real-World Assets (RWAs) in crypto, arguing that while these assets show some growth, they often mirror traditional finance without introducing meaningful innovation. He illustrated this point by comparing RWAs to obsolete technology, asserting that transferring conventional financial assets to blockchain does not create real value or adoption. Instead, he maintained that true growth in the crypto space would come from innovative, native applications rather than reliance on institutional interest or familiar financial structures. Yin concluded that many current projects lacked real adoption, emphasizing the importance of focusing on the unique characteristics of cryptocurrencies to foster genuine engagement. ^[7]

RWAs

In a presentation at The Ether night stage of ETHDenver, Yin discussed the issues surrounding real-world assets (RWAs) and the negative sentiment within the crypto market. He noted that despite some positive price movements in RW tokens, overall sentiment remained low due to various disappointments, including political scandals that undermined confidence. Yin explained that although RWAs hold potential for the crypto space, the influx of traditional financial institutions often brings more products for extraction rather than contributing to market growth. He emphasized the need to build from the user perspective instead of primarily relying on institutional involvement, advocating for a focus on more crypto-native projects that resonate with current users and address actual needs in the market. Yin concluded by expressing a desire to foster more discussions about the future of RWAs. ^[8]

RWAs Going to Zero

At Pragma San Francisco in 2024, Yin discussed the decline of Real World Assets (RWAs) and why they were headed towards zero. He began by defining RWAs as tokens representing physical and traditional financial assets. He highlighted their brief surge in popularity, driven by institutional interest and off-chain yields performing better than on-chain counterparts. Yin pointed out that most RWAs merely copied traditional financial products onto the blockchain rather than innovating for the crypto space, leading to poor market traction. He argued that successful crypto products must be designed natively for the blockchain and cater to the existing crypto audience instead of relying on traditional models. Yin concluded that unless the categorization of RWAs shifted to focus more on user-friendly and properly integrated assets, such as stablecoins, the concept of RWAs would continue to struggle and lose relevance in the market. ^[9]