Pendle has launched RWA Insights, a new video series examining how institutional real-world assets are being integrated into decentralized finance. The inaugural episode features Vincent Ng, Managing Director and Head of Asia at Partners Group, and Bridget Li, Co-Founder and CEO of Asseto. According to the official Pendle discussion, the first episode centers on NGI+, a tokenized private-infrastructure product already trading through Pendle’s yield markets on Ethereum.
The underlying exposure is tied to Partners Group’s Next Generation Infrastructure strategy, or NGI, which currently stands at approximately $2.4 billion and is targeting $3 billion by year-end. Partners Group itself manages $186 billion globally as of June 30. The $2.4 billion figure refers to the underlying infrastructure strategy, not the amount of NGI+ tokenized or deposited into Pendle.
NGI+ is the latest RWA market on Pendle, with more institutional strategies on the way.
As the largest asset managers tokenise their funds, Pendle is where that yield becomes fixed, priced and traded around the clock onchain.
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— Pendle (@pendle_fi) September 29, 2026
NGI+ Turns Private Infrastructure Yield Into a Tradable Market
Asseto launched NGI+ in July as an onchain token backed by interests in a private infrastructure equity fund associated with Partners Group’s NGI strategy. Eligible holders receive economic exposure linked to the NAV performance of those underlying interests, which span data centers, energy infrastructure, power grids and transportation assets. Asseto provides the tokenization, smart-contract and operational infrastructure, while Partners Group and the underlying fund managers are not themselves the issuers of NGI+.
The product moved onto Pendle on September 16, allowing its yield profile to enter Pendle’s principal-and-yield separation model. Pendle can divide yield-bearing exposure into Principal Tokens and Yield Tokens, letting participants take fixed-rate exposure or trade the future yield stream separately. The integration moves NGI+ beyond simply representing a fund interest onchain and into DeFi-native rate and yield markets. That direction aligns with Pendle’s broader shift toward becoming DeFi yield and fixed-income infrastructure.
Partners Group said the underlying NGI portfolio includes 26 direct investments and 48 secondary transactions representing exposure to more than 500 assets. The firm reported a 19.2% annualized net return since the strategy’s February 2024 inception, although Ng cautioned that those returns are not expected to remain indefinitely at that level. Tokenization and Pendle integration do not change the underlying private-infrastructure investment risk, valuation process or liquidity constraints.
Asseto Targets DeFi Utility Beyond Token Issuance
The discussion repeatedly distinguished tokenization from actual onchain utility. Asseto says it has supported roughly $500 million in tokenized assets, but Bridget Li argued that putting an asset on a blockchain without making it usable in financial applications provides limited additional value. Asseto’s stated objective is to integrate its tokenized assets into DeFi through trading, collateral, lending and yield markets rather than stopping at issuance.
That approach is increasingly visible across institutional tokenization. Bitwise’s tokenized USCC fund, for example, has moved fund shares into Aave and other DeFi collateral markets, while Centrifuge has added T+0 liquidity infrastructure around tokenized institutional credit. The common progression is from token representation toward liquidity, collateralization and programmable financial use.
Partners Group and Asseto are already considering additional asset classes. Ng identified royalties as a potential next candidate, while Asseto said it plans to tokenize the strategy and integrate it with Pendle. Partners Group’s royalties business spans more than 10,000 intellectual-property assets and has grown beyond $2 billion. Those plans remain prospective, however; NGI+ is the current live case showing how a Partners Group-linked private-market strategy can be connected to DeFi yield infrastructure.
The new RWA Insights series consequently documents an operational integration rather than announcing another tokenization concept. The more useful measure of progress will be liquidity, trading activity, collateral usage and investor participation around NGI+, not the $2.4 billion size of the underlying strategy itself.