Plume has received SEC approval as a transfer agent, allowing compliant recordkeeping, trade tracking, and fund administration for tokenized assets within U.S. regulations.
Summary
- Plume is the inaugural SEC-approved on-chain transfer agent, facilitating compliant recordkeeping and trade reporting on the blockchain.
- The platform integrates with SEC and DTCC systems, bridging Wall Street’s oversight with Web3 automation.
- With 200,000 asset holders and $62 million tokenized through Nest Credit, Plume aims to attract 40 Act funds and expand regulated tokenization in the U.S.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has appointed Plume Network a significant role in the digital asset sector, approving it to function as a transfer agent. This designation, announced on Oct. 6, enables the company to maintain shareholder records, manage ownership changes, and handle compliance reporting directly on-chain.
By doing this, Plume becomes the first native crypto entity to assume a role historically held by traditional Wall Street recordkeepers. Its system is designed to connect directly with the existing SEC and DTCC infrastructure, creating a seamless link between decentralized ledgers and U.S. financial regulation.
A regulated bridge between Wall Street and Web3
A transfer agent serves as the official recordkeeper for securities. In traditional finance, these agents carefully monitor share ownership, manage ownership transfers, and oversee important investor communications like dividend distributions. With its registration, Plume can now execute these functions with the transparency and automation provided by blockchain technology.
Plume’s on-chain transfer agent is crafted to streamline processes that currently take months. By integrating trade reporting and cap table management into smart contracts, the system can reduce tokenization timelines to weeks. It also facilitates use cases that have been challenging to achieve in compliant environments, such as on-chain IPOs, small-cap fundraising, and registered fund issuance.
For asset managers, the network offers native fund administration tools, enabling the creation, management, and settlement of tokenized securities while complying with federal reporting obligations.
The network is already operational. To showcase its capabilities, Plume has successfully onboarded over 200,000 holders of real-world assets and facilitated more than $62 million in tokenized assets on its Nest Credit protocol within a three-month period.
Importantly, Plume’s regulatory achievement is part of a larger strategy to attract 40 Act funds, the regulatory foundation of the U.S. asset management industry that includes mutual funds and ETFs, representing a $39 trillion market. The network has indicated it is receiving interest from these funds, signaling that traditional managers are keenly looking for compliant pathways to blockchain efficiencies.
