Plume launches world’s first regulated onchain vault with Bermuda licence

Kimber Labs subsidiary secures Class M Digital Asset Business Licence from the Bermuda Monetary Authority, joining Circle and Coinbase in the island's regulated crypto ranks.

Add us on Google by Editorial Team May. 26, 2026

Plume just became the first company in the world to operate a regulated onchain vault manager. The distinction comes courtesy of a Class M Digital Asset Business Licence from the Bermuda Monetary Authority, granted to Kimber Digital Assets Bermuda ISAC Ltd., a subsidiary of Plume’s parent company Kimber Labs Inc.

The licence allows Plume to create and distribute vault tokens that tokenize institutional-grade assets, think private credit, real estate, and commodities, all while operating under a compliance framework that mirrors Bermuda’s stablecoin regulations. In English: instead of just putting assets “on the blockchain” and hoping regulators don’t notice, Plume is building the vault infrastructure with AML and KYC baked in from day one.

What the licence actually means

Bermuda’s Class M licence isn’t a rubber stamp. It’s the same regulatory tier that governs firms like Circle, Coinbase, and Kraken on the island, subjecting holders to rigorous operational scrutiny covering asset-liability management, cybersecurity protocols, and ongoing compliance obligations.

The BMA-regulated vaults are expected to incorporate non-custodial smart contracts, verifiable collateral proof, and new methods for generating liquidity. That combination targets a specific audience: institutional and accredited investors who want blockchain’s transparency benefits without the regulatory ambiguity that has historically kept them away.

Plume also holds SEC transfer-agent registration in the United States, which means the company is building a dual-jurisdiction regulatory footprint.

The infrastructure behind the vault

Plume operates an Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible Layer 1 blockchain designed specifically for real-world asset tokenization. The mainnet launched in mid-2025, and the ecosystem has since grown to encompass over 200 projects, according to the company.

The platform has distributed more than $350 million in asset value to date, backed by a roster of financial heavyweights that includes Apollo Global Management, Galaxy Digital, and Brevan Howard.

The EVM compatibility is a deliberate design choice. By building on a stack that’s familiar to the vast majority of Solidity developers and DeFi protocols, Plume reduces the friction for integration with existing decentralized finance infrastructure. Vault tokens issued through the platform can, in theory, plug into lending protocols, yield strategies, and secondary markets without requiring entirely new tooling.

What this means for investors

Plume’s BMA licence changes the calculus for a specific segment of the market. Institutional allocators, family offices, and wealth managers who’ve been circling the RWA space now have a regulated entry point with verifiable collateral and onchain reserves.

The risk side of the equation is worth watching too. Regulated doesn’t mean risk-free. The underlying assets in these vaults, private credit, real estate, commodities, carry their own market risks regardless of the wrapper. And the non-custodial smart contract architecture, while eliminating counterparty risk from a custodian, introduces smart contract risk that institutional investors may not be fully equipped to evaluate.

There’s also the question of liquidity. Tokenizing illiquid assets is straightforward. Making those tokens genuinely liquid on secondary markets is a different challenge entirely.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.