Plume Affiliate Kimber Digital Securities Wins SEC, Finra Approval
Kimber Digital Securities, affiliated with Kimber Labs and Plume, registered with the SEC and won Finra membership, becoming a U.S. broker-dealer. Its platform, linking self-custodial wallets to DTC entitlements, targets a first-half 2027 debut, though ATS registration is still pending.
A Plume-affiliated firm can now legally buy and sell securities for customers in the United States. Kimber Digital Securities (KDS), an affiliate of Kimber Labs and the Plume blockchain network, has registered with the SEC and received Finra membership approval, making it a U.S. broker-dealer, according to a company announcement on Tuesday, Nov. 10.
KDS was already an SEC-registered transfer agent, the entity that maintains records of who owns a security. Adding broker-dealer status means one affiliated firm can now cover both record-keeping and trading for tokenized securities.
Access to DTC
The registration gives KDS customers access to the Depository Trust Company (DTC), which the company says custodies more than $100 trillion in assets. Under the model described, investors would hold eligible stocks, ETFs and bonds in self-custodial wallets while the book-entry claim stays recorded at the DTC.
"Broker-dealer registration also gives our customers access to the core of U.S. market infrastructure: the Depository Trust Company."
Kimber Labs / Plume, company statement
The company argued that this link is what separates its approach from other onchain assets.
"DTC entitlements give these tokens what most onchain assets lack: a settled, recognized claim on the real U.S. equity, ETF, or bond asset."
Kimber Labs / Plume, company statement
What comes next
The platform is targeting a debut in the first half of 2027 on a public EVM blockchain. It is aimed at stablecoin app users and would offer SEC-regulated yield-bearing products as GENIUS Act stablecoin rules come online. Assets in scope reportedly include tokenized private credit and treasuries from issuers such as Apollo and WisdomTree.
KDS plans to build anti-money-laundering controls and sanctions screening into the trading flow, while remaining non-custodial and composable with DeFi applications. A Bermuda affiliate separately holds a Class M Digital Asset license for operating as a regulated onchain vault operator.
Limits of the approval
The license is a milestone, not the finish line. KDS is working toward registration as an onchain Alternative Trading System (ATS), a regulated venue for matching trades. Until that registration is granted, it can broker tokenized securities but does not operate its own marketplace.
Market impact is also still prospective. No token launches or measurable price moves have been tied to the license so far.
Context
Plume launched its mainnet in June 2025 and, as of March 2026, had recorded more than $350 million in distributed asset value and over 220 tokenization projects. General Counsel Salman Banaei, formerly at the SEC and CFTC, testified before Congress on tokenization in March 2026.
The approval arrives as other firms pursue regulated onchain equity markets by different routes. Formation Securities, for example, recently notified the SEC of a permissioned Solana venue for tokenized U.S. stocks under the Innovation Exemption, a notice that is not SEC approval. KDS, by contrast, now holds the registrations themselves, though its full trading platform is not slated to launch until the first half of 2027.
