TL;DR: Private equity giant Apollo just dropped a 7-figure investment into Plume, a blockchain project built to bring RWAs on-chain. This comes less than 24 hours after MANTRA’s $108M raise. Institutions are now in RWA mode—and they’re betting big on infrastructure. Let’s break it down.
📌 If this is how your day’s starting… let’s zoom out for 30 seconds
Macro’s heating up. And it’s affecting markets across the board.
A wallet potentially connected to Trump's World Liberty Financial sold 5,471 ETH for approximately $8.01 million ($1,465 per ETH). This sale happened shortly after Eric Trump suggested it was a good time to invest in Ethereum. The company had previously purchased 67,498 ETH for around $210 million (average price: $3,259 per ETH), and is now facing an estimated loss of about $125 million on its Ethereum holdings.
At 12:01am, the U.S. officially slapped a 104% tariff on Chinese goods ⚠️
Hours later, China hit back with an 84% retaliatory tariff on U.S. exports 🔁
Asked if Chinese stocks could be delisted, Treasury Secretary Bessent replied: “Everything’s on the table.”
Meanwhile, Larry Kudlow is out here calling his shot: "If you can get a couple—three—deals in the next three, four, five weeks, I don’t know many weeks, maybe six weeks, that’s going to trigger a tremendous rally in the stock market. Because people are going to say, you know what, the Trump people were right, and this is exactly how it’s playing out."
"Frankly, at this point, to me, all this recession talk—it’s the greatest recession that never happened."
“The deals are being done. This is going to be HUGE.”
Bottom line: Global tensions are HIGH. Markets are shaky. Can crypto decouple?
Ok, we digress…Back to PLUME
1. Apollo’s 7-Figure Bet on Plume
Plume just secured a seven-figure investment from funds managed by Apollo Global Management—one of the world’s largest private equity firms.
Their goal? Build the rails for tokenized real-world assets like:
Bonds
Funds
Commodities
Carbon credits
Collectibles
This isn’t “putting assets on-chain” just to say it.
This is about making RWAs functional in DeFi: lending, borrowing, swapping, speculating.
Christine Moy (Apollo):
“Plume represents a new kind of infrastructure focused on digital asset utility, investor engagement, and next-gen financial solutions.”
2. Plume by the Numbers
18M+ wallets already active on testnet
200+ integrated protocols
Modular, Ethereum-compatible chain
Chasing a projected $18.9T RWA market by 2033 📈
Apollo isn’t here for fun.
They’re here for infrastructure.
3. ICYMI: MANTRA’s $108M War Chest
Yesterday’s ⚡️NUGGS⚡️ broke the news on MANTRA’s $108M raise, focused on building a regulatory-compliant RWA Layer 1 across Asia and the Middle East.
Their angle: Regulatory-first.
Plume’s play: Infrastructure-first.
Two approaches.
Same mission: Tokenize the world. 🌍
4. This Isn’t Just Narrative Anymore
This week alone:
MANTRA → $108M
Plume → 7 figures
Ripple + BCG say RWA tokenization hits $18.9T by 2033
That’s execution. Narrative is becoming reality.
Final Take:
RWA season is here and its heating up.
Institutional capital is moving.
Infrastructure is being built.
If you’re still sitting on the sidelines waiting for “confirmation”… this is it.
Plume and MANTRA are now essential watching.
Stay sharp. Stay early.
— The CryptoNuggs Team ⚡️