Plume’s Bermuda subsidiary, Kimber Digital Assets Bermuda ISAC Ltd., has secured a Class M Digital Asset Business Licence from the Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA), clearing the way for what the firm calls the first regulated onchain vault manager.
The approval, granted under Bermuda’s Digital Asset Business Act 2018, places Kimber in the same regulatory regime that oversees established digital asset firms including Circle and Coinbase. The licence allows the company to issue blockchain‑based vault tokens globally to anyone with a stablecoin and internet access, subject to Bermuda oversight.
Full prudential oversight and ETF‑style structure
Under the Class M licence, Kimber must meet prudential standards similar to those applied to traditional regulated financial entities. These include:
- minimum net asset requirements
- liquidity management controls
- formal wind‑down and resolution plans
Plume’s vaults follow a structure similar to exchange‑traded funds. Users deposit assets and receive proportional tokenized shares that can be redeemed at net asset value. Smart contracts handle issuance, redemption and accounting, while a designated curator rebalances holdings according to preset parameters encoded in the protocol.
The model removes traditional intermediaries such as custodians, relying instead on automated onchain mechanisms, with the BMA supervising the overall framework.
Segregated accounts and onchain controls
Each vault operates through its own incorporated segregated account, as defined in Bermuda’s Incorporated Segregated Accounts Act 2019. This structure:
- ring‑fences assets and liabilities
- gives each vault a separate legal identity
- provides bankruptcy protection from the parent and other vaults
Reserves are held onchain in non‑custodial smart contracts. Collateral is independently verified by Bluprynt, an onchain verification service. The vault tokens include embedded freeze‑and‑seize tools at the compliance layer, enabling responses to sanctions, court orders, or regulatory actions.
New channel for cross‑border fund structures
The licence is designed to open a compliant pathway for U.S.‑registered master funds to link with non‑U.S. feeder structures at blockchain scale. In practice, this pairs:
- a Bermuda‑regulated feeder vehicle
- with a globally tradeable vault token issued on Plume’s network
This arrangement aims to replace multiple bespoke fund setups with a single, regulator‑supervised onchain structure, potentially lowering costs and speeding market access for cross‑border capital flows.
Tokenized real‑world asset market accelerates
The move comes amid rapid growth in the tokenized real‑world asset (RWA) segment. Between January 2025 and April 2026, the total market capitalization for onchain RWAs increased roughly 431%, from about $5.8 billion to more than $30.8 billion. By May 2026, the figure had already passed $33.7 billion, with tokenized U.S. Treasury debt representing around $15.5 billion.
Institutional appetite has risen in parallel. A 2026 survey cited by Plume found:
- 64% of asset managers are “very interested” in tokenizing their own assets, up from 40% in 2025
- 63% of institutional allocators are interested in gaining exposure to tokenized assets, with clearer regulation as a key driver for increased allocations
Plume positions the Bermuda licence as a way to tap that demand through a regulated, programmatic vault structure.
Plume network growth and backing
Plume launched its mainnet in June 2025 with approximately $150 million in tokenized assets across sectors including:
- energy infrastructure
- private credit
- healthcare receivables
- mineral rights
A strategic investment from Apollo Global Management in April 2025 supported the build‑out of the network and onboarding of asset originators.
According to Plume, its platform records a blocked transaction rate of 0.000005%, significantly below the roughly 1% rate seen on some comparable public blockchains, a metric the firm highlights as evidence of strong transaction completion and compliance filtering.
Next steps: product details pending
Co‑founders Yin and Pornprinya said the BMA licence allows Plume to distribute tokenized real‑world assets more broadly and under clearer regulatory supervision than before.
Specific vault products to be launched under the new Bermuda framework are expected to be announced in the coming weeks, outlining asset types, fee structures and access conditions for onchain participants.
Want deeper insight into regulated crypto infrastructure? Explore how digital assets are reshaping compliant, secure tokenized markets.
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