Each month, we’re bringing you a breakdown of startups’ journeys building on Solana, as well as noteworthy blockchain and ecosystem updates.

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For today’s episode, we interviewed Ayyan Rahman, co-founder and chief growth officer at OnRe, about why most real-world asset (RWA) projects in crypto are fundamentally misaligned with how DeFi actually works.

Ayyan explains that tokenization alone isn’t enough and that many RWAs today function more like repackaged traditional finance than truly composable on-chain assets. He breaks down why this creates a risk of “Wall Street exit liquidity,” and what it actually takes to build an asset that integrates properly into DeFi systems.

The conversation explores why reinsurance offers a unique source of uncorrelated yield, how tokenization can unlock more efficient capital scaling, and why liquidity, redemption mechanics, and risk modeling need to be rethought for on-chain markets.

They also discuss the impact of Drift Protocol’s exploit on market confidence, what stress reveals about DeFi systems, why the idea of “risk-free yield” is flawed, and how institutional capital is evaluating onchain opportunities. The episode closes with a broader look at where crypto is heading from speculative markets toward more structured, resilient financial systems built around real assets.

This episode is part of the Solana Sessions series by Token Relations and the Talking Tokens podcast, where we dive into the startups and founders building on Solana. Check out the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube.

OnRe, a reinsurance protocol built on Solana, is taking a different approach to real-world assets than most issuers in the space. Rather than simply tokenizing an existing fund and bringing it onchain, the startup says it structures its asset to integrate with DeFi's mechanics from the ground up.

Ayyan Rahman, co-founder and chief growth officer of OnRe, claims many tokenized RWAs on the market are not fully compatible with how DeFi functions. "To have a [tokenized] asset that actually integrates well into an ecosystem, you have to take into account how DeFi works," he said. "Unfortunately, a lot of RWAs today haven't built or structured their assets to be fully compatible with DeFi."

Traditional reinsurance businesses typically deploy capital around a renewal date, which limits how often they can underwrite new deals throughout the year. By bringing the business model onchain, OnRe says it can operate more like an open fund.

OnRe claims building on Solana has reshaped how it approaches distribution. Rahman framed growth less as a chain-specific decision and more as an application-driven one, with integrations concentrated in lending venues that price RWAs independently. "Loopscale's credit order book system handles RWAs quite well, because they can independently price each of the assets that they list independently," he said.

Isolated RWA markets allow lenders to avoid competing with stablecoin demand from leveraged perpetual traders, and borrowers don’t have to pay rates calibrated to token volatility. This ensures tokenized assets can be used as productive collateral rather than have them sit passively onchain as wrapped versions of off-chain holdings. 

For OnRe, Rahman says the near-term measure of success is scaling assets under management (AUM), while maintaining its target yield and risk framework. Such an approach would tackle a harder problem: making tokenized assets behave similar to onchain assets, where they are liquid and composable across DeFi protocols.

These metrics concern OnRe on Solana, and are accurate at the time of publication.

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This information is for entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial advice, nor should it be used to make investment decisions. Cryptocurrencies are high risk and you should consult a financial professional before making any financial decisions. Make sure you do your own research.