Plume builds SEC-approved rails for tokenized securities

Plume is now an SEC-approved transfer agent, enabling compliant recordkeeping, trade tracking, and fund administration for tokenized assets within U.S. regulatory frameworks.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has granted Plume Network a pivotal role in the digital asset space, approving it to operate as a transfer agent. The designation, confirmed in an Oct. 6 announcement, empowers the company to maintain shareholder ledgers, process ownership changes, and handle compliance reporting directly on-chain.

In doing so, Plume becomes the first native crypto entity to step into a function long dominated by Wall Street’s traditional recordkeepers. Crucially, its system is built to plug directly into the existing infrastructure of the SEC and the DTCC, creating a seamless bridge between decentralized ledgers and the core of U.S. financial regulation.

A regulated bridge between Wall Street and Web3

A transfer agent acts as the official recordkeeper for a security. In traditional finance, these entities meticulously track who owns shares, manage the transfer of ownership, and handle critical investor communications like dividend payments. Plume’s registration means it can now perform these exact functions, but with the immutable transparency and smart-contract automation inherent to blockchain technology.

Plume’s on-chain transfer agent is designed to simplify processes that currently stretch for months. By embedding trade reporting and cap table management into smart contracts, the system can cut tokenization timelines to weeks. It also enables use cases that have been difficult to achieve in compliant settings, including on-chain IPOs, small-cap fundraising, and registered fund issuance.

For asset managers, the network offers native fund administration tools, allowing them to create, manage, and settle tokenized securities while adhering to federal reporting requirements.

The network is not starting from zero. To demonstrate operational capacity, Plume has already onboarded more than 200,000 holders of real-world assets and facilitated over $62 million in tokenized assets on its Nest Credit protocol within a three-month span.

Notably, Plume’s regulatory milestone is also part of a broader strategy to attract 40 Act funds, the regulatory backbone of the U.S. asset management industry encompassing mutual funds and ETFs, which represents a $39 trillion market. The network has confirmed it is already fielding interest from such funds, a clear signal that traditional managers are actively seeking compliant on-ramps to blockchain efficiency.