Plume Network Wins Bermuda Digital Asset License for Real-World Asset Vaults
Plume Network secured a Digital Asset Business Act license from Bermuda’s financial regulator on May 20, becoming the first platform authorized to operate regulated real-world asset vaults under that framework. The license places Plume alongside Circle, Coinbase, and Kraken as firms that have selected Bermuda’s DABA regime as their primary offshore regulatory anchor.
The company says its vaults will allow institutional and retail participants to hold tokenized real-world assets in a compliant structure for the first time under DABA.
What the Bermuda License Covers
The DABA framework, short for the Digital Asset Business Act, is Bermuda’s primary licensing regime for cryptocurrency and digital asset companies operating from or through the jurisdiction. Bermuda enacted the framework in 2018 as one of the first purpose-built regulatory structures for digital assets globally.
A DABA license authorizes a company to issue, sell, or facilitate the exchange of digital assets and requires ongoing compliance with anti-money-laundering and consumer protection standards set by the Bermuda Monetary Authority.
Plume’s license specifically authorizes the operation of what the company calls Regulated Vaults, a product category designed to hold tokenized versions of real-world assets including private credit, commodities, and real estate. The company’s announcement described the vaults as the first of their kind sanctioned under the DABA framework.
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Real-World Assets and Why Regulation Matters
Real-world asset tokenization, often abbreviated as RWA, refers to the process of creating a blockchain-based digital token that represents ownership in or a claim on a physical or financial asset.
Examples include tokenized U.S. Treasury bonds, private credit funds, and commercial real estate.
Tokenization allows these assets to be transferred on a blockchain with the speed and programmability of cryptocurrency while retaining a legal claim on the underlying asset.
The RWA sector has grown rapidly across 2025 and into 2026. Total tokenized real-world assets tracked across major blockchains exceeded $20 billion in early 2026, according to data from DeFi Llama, with tokenized Treasury products accounting for the largest share.
Institutional interest has been driven partly by yield-bearing on-chain products that emerged as alternatives to low-yield cryptocurrency positions.
Regulation has been the persistent bottleneck for RWA adoption at scale. Institutional allocators, particularly those in insurance, pension, and wealth management channels, typically require assets to sit within a supervised structure before they can be included in portfolios.
Plume’s DABA license is designed to close that gap, giving the platform legal standing to offer vaults that meet the compliance threshold for regulated capital.
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How We Got Here
Plume launched its mainnet in early 2025 with a focus on RWA tokenization infrastructure. The project aimed to build a blockchain layer purpose-designed for asset-backed tokens rather than retrofitting existing general-purpose chains.
Prior to the Bermuda license, Plume operated without a formal regulatory designation, which limited its ability to market directly to licensed financial institutions in many jurisdictions.
The Bermuda pathway has attracted multiple major cryptocurrency firms for exactly the reason Plume pursued it. Circle received a DABA license in 2020, giving its USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin one of the earliest offshore regulatory anchors in the industry.
Coinbase and Kraken followed in subsequent years. Each used the Bermuda designation as part of a broader strategy to demonstrate regulatory seriousness ahead of tighter licensing environments in the United States and Europe.
Plume’s inclusion in that group signals that Bermuda is extending the DABA framework beyond pure payments and exchange use cases into the tokenized asset space.
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Outlook
Plume’s Regulated Vaults product is expected to launch in the weeks following the license grant.
The company has not disclosed which specific asset classes will be available at launch, nor has it named institutional partners that have committed capital to the vaults. The competitive RWA tokenization space includes Ondo (ONDO), which offers tokenized Treasury products, and several permissioned chain providers targeting similar institutional use cases.
Plume’s regulatory anchor may give it a distribution advantage in jurisdictions that require custodians and issuers to hold recognized licenses. Whether the Bermuda designation translates into meaningful institutional inflow will likely depend on whether major wealth managers accept DABA-licensed products under their internal compliance frameworks.
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