Kimber Labs, a real-world assets enterprise operating under the Plume brand, announced it has achieved a regulatory milestone in the ongoing effort to introduce genuine U.S. assets onto blockchain architecture.
Its affiliate, Kimber Digital Securities (KDS), obtained registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and attained membership approval from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (Finra) to function as a broker-dealer.
According to a statement provided to CoinDesk on Tuesday, these regulatory approvals permit the company to execute purchases and sales of securities on behalf of clients.
Practically speaking, this framework bypasses the synthetic wrapped tokens commonly found in the digital asset sector, connecting directly into the core foundation of traditional U.S. financial market infrastructure and granting digital tokens identical legal rights, dividends, and voting privileges as conventional investments.
Access to DTC
This registration grants customers of KDS direct entry into the Depository Trust Company (DTC), which serves as the central securities depository for American markets and reportedly custodies over $100 trillion in assets, the announcement noted.
The company stated that investors will retain the ability to keep eligible exchange-traded funds, bonds, and stocks inside their self-custodial wallets while preserving the official book-entry claim already logged at the DTC.
The resulting tokens symbolize an entitlement that embodies the exact privileges of standard assets, which encompass dividend distributions, voting rights, and a direct claim upon the underlying property.
Expressed differently, this registration extends traditional American market plumbing directly onto a public Ethereum-compatible (EVM) blockchain. Consequently, once KDS officially debuts, participants will possess the capability to hold digital claims on U.S. financial instruments directly within a self-custodial wallet.
The company explained that DTC entitlements supply these tokens with a settled, recognized claim on actual U.S. equities, ETFs, or bonds—something most blockchain-based assets currently lack.
The intended demographic comprises stablecoin users, referring to digital currencies pegged to external benchmarks like the U.S. dollar. KDS will empower stablecoin applications to deliver SEC-regulated yield-generating instruments to their clientele, including tokenized shares in funds managed by premier American asset managers, as forthcoming U.S. stablecoin regulations under the GENIUS Act take effect.
Chris Yin, co-founder and CEO of Plume, remarked in the statement that stablecoins are onboarding an entirely new demographic to the blockchain. He added that retaining those users relies on providing yield alongside access to genuine investment vehicles backed by complete regulatory safeguards, noting that their broker-dealer serves as the mechanism to anchor those participants onchain and link American investors to the emerging decentralized capital markets they have spent years building infrastructure to support.
For Plume, this development introduces a revenue avenue supplementing its existing capability to maintain corporate shareholder registers both on and off a blockchain. In September of the previous year, Kimber Transfer Agency—another subsidiary of Plume—registered with the SEC as a transfer agent, the entity responsible for managing record-keeping duties.
Additionally, Plume’s decentralized infrastructure has facilitated the distribution of asset-management offerings from organizations such as WisdomTree, Shinhan, Fidelity, and Apollo across cryptocurrency exchanges and decentralized finance (DeFi) trading and lending protocols, according to Salman Banaei, Plume’s general counsel.
Not live yet
Banaei mentioned that Plume anticipates launching the KDS platform during the initial half of 2027.
He informed CoinDesk that Kimber Digital Securities (KDS) represents a novel platform, noting that currently no Plume-developed platforms deliver access to U.S. users, whereas KDS intends to provide access to SEC-compliant tokenized securities specifically for domestic participants.
Banaei stated that while subject to modification, their introductory product suite is anticipated to consist of regulated asset-management vehicles issued by registered investment companies as well as DTCC securities entitlements.
Token control
The announcement outlines that ownership of U.S. securities is documented through an interconnected chain of intermediaries.
At the base level of this hierarchy, an investor holds a security entitlement with their designated broker-dealer. This signifies that the investor maintains a claim against the broker-dealer rather than holding direct ownership of the underlying security.
A security entitlement reflects the fractional share of securities that the broker-dealer maintains collectively for all its patrons. The broker-dealer, conversely, maintains a corresponding entitlement with the DTC, which logs the position via its internal book-entry mechanism.
KDS clarifies that its tokens are designed to mirror that foundational security entitlement directly onchain.
The announcement emphasizes that each token records a specific position inside this pre-existing chain rather than functioning as a wrapper placed around an asset stored externally.
Banaei pointed out that customers will retain control of their own private keys.
He noted that because users maintain their individual keys throughout the process, KDS never assumes possession of customer funds, thereby minimizing custody risk by design rather than merely relying on insurance coverage.
Nevertheless, the DTC will maintain override capabilities.
Banaei explained that under the SEC no-action framework established in December 2025, the token does not operate as a bearer instrument detached from DTC oversight, because the DTC retains a root wallet equipped with the authority to convert, transfer, mint, or burn any token—even absent the holder’s private key—to rectify mistaken transfers or substitute compromised or misplaced tokens, with operational keys secured in cold storage.
This arrangement grants the DTC the capacity to relocate, generate, or eliminate any token independently of the holder’s private key.
Banaei noted that only blockchains satisfying DTC eligibility standards and receiving formal approval can support these tokens, though the announcement refrained from confirming whether the Plume blockchain itself has secured such authorization.
Where KDS fits in
Banaei indicated that the primary revenue model for KDS relies on transaction-driven streams, such as commissions and processing fees, alongside anticipated integration and platform charges levied on partnering distribution entities linking to its network, which include payment platforms, digital wallet operators, and alternative broker-dealers.
He observed that the market opportunity is presently in its early stages but will scale proportionally with the broader adoption of tokenized securities and the expansion of onboarded distribution partners, representing the primary source of material upside.
Banaei specified that the sole U.S.-compliant products currently deployed on the Plume blockchain consist of WisdomTree’s tokenized funds, which adhere strictly to the Investment Company Act of 1940.
Addressing how KDS differentiates itself from established players like Franklin Templeton, BlackRock, Securitize, and Ondo, Banaei characterized the variance as a matter of strategic emphasis rather than fundamental classification.
He observed that those legacy firms concentrated predominantly on tokenizing American assets geared toward institutional, permission-restricted, or offshore channels.
In contrast, he stated that KDS directs Plume toward the opposite side of the pipeline, focusing on domestic retail users and compliant onshore distribution channels.
Originally published at https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/11/10/emb-10-am-et-plume-affiliate-gets-the-legal-green-light-to-trade-regulated-security-entitlements-onchain.
