Tokenization has long been hampered by paperwork. Kimber Digital Securities (KDS) has now addressed a substantial part of that problem.
The firm, affiliated with Kimber Labs and the Plume blockchain network, has registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and received membership approval from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (Finra). Together, the approvals make it a licensed broker-dealer.
What the license actually unlocks
A broker-dealer is a licensed intermediary in US securities markets. Generally, anyone seeking to legally arrange customer trades in regulated securities needs this status and must answer to both the SEC and Finra, the industry’s self-regulatory watchdog.
KDS now holds both approvals, giving Plume’s ecosystem a regulated channel for handling tokenized US securities instead of routing around the rules.
The broker-dealer approval adds to a credential KDS already held: the firm was already an SEC-registered transfer agent.
A transfer agent essentially keeps the official records of who owns a security. It tracks shareholders and processes ownership changes. Combining that role with broker-dealer status means one affiliated entity can handle both the ledger and trading sides of a tokenized security’s life cycle.
The assets reportedly in scope include tokenized private credit and treasuries from issuers such as Apollo and WisdomTree.
KDS also plans to build compliance checks into the trading flow, including anti-money laundering (AML) controls and sanctions screening for US securities tokens.
The Plume backdrop
Plume officially launched its mainnet in June 2025. Since then, the network has recorded more than $350 million in distributed asset value.
As of March 2026, it had also logged more than 220 tokenization projects. Many operate through Nest, Plume’s vault protocol for packaging tokenized assets.
KDS is not Plume’s only regulated arm. A Bermuda affiliate holds a Class M Digital Asset license, allowing it to operate as a regulated onchain vault operator.
The group now has a regulated presence in two jurisdictions: Bermuda for vault operations, and the US for transfer agency and broker-dealer activity.
General Counsel Salman Banaei, whose background includes work at the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), is leading the legal effort. Banaei testified before Congress on tokenization in March 2026.
Not done yet: the ATS question
The broker-dealer license marks a milestone, but not the finish line. KDS is pursuing registration as an onchain Alternative Trading System (ATS).
An ATS is a regulated venue that matches securities buyers and sellers without being a full national exchange. If KDS obtains that status, it would add a sanctioned marketplace layer to the ledger and brokerage roles it already has.
The firm also says it wants to keep its services non-custodial and DeFi-composable. Non-custodial means users retain control of their assets instead of handing them to an intermediary. Composable means the tokenized assets can connect to other onchain applications, such as lending markets or vaults.
What this means for tokenization
Plume’s affiliates now cover record-keeping, brokerage and offshore vault operations under one umbrella, while an ATS remains in development.
No specific token launches or measurable price movements have been linked to the license so far, so any market impact remains prospective rather than demonstrated.
Until ATS registration is granted, KDS can broker tokenized securities but does not operate its own sanctioned onchain marketplace for matching trades.
The next indicators to watch are whether more traditional issuers bring assets through KDS, whether Plume’s distributed asset value and project count continue to rise, and whether the ATS application moves from a goal to an approval.
Source: cryptobriefing.com. Adapted by NBTC.
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