Plume Says Kinetiq Registered as U.S. Broker After FINRA and SEC Approval
Key Facts
Plume announced on November 10, 2026, that Kinetiq Digital Securities had obtained FINRA membership and registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as a securities broker. The announcement marks a new regulatory step for the company in the United States, where the entity aims to link trading in tokenized securities with a registered brokerage framework. Plume said the broker was designed to let investors hold real tokenized securities in their portfolios with full shareholder rights. It added that the brokerage model would include regulatory safeguards such as best execution of orders and independent oversight of operational and cybersecurity risks. The announcement did not specify when any particular products would become available through the entity. Access to some of the announced offerings and capabilities remains dependent on their development and availability.
Plume positions the broker within the compliance and U.S. customer-facing layer, separate from development of the underlying protocol. In a written submission to the SEC in March 2026, Kinetiq Labs said the broker would oversee compliance at the application layer, monitor trading and prepare regulatory reports for U.S. customers. In a presentation to the SEC’s crypto task force in September 2026, the company described the plan as a non-custodial broker focused on tokenized securities. It said at the time that it was working with FINRA on membership for an alternative trading system. The submission said the proposed system would enable secondary trading in certain tokenized securities not listed on the National Market System, including bonds and asset-backed securities. The plans therefore cover brokerage, compliance and secondary trading, alongside securities registration.
Plume said the broker’s presence could help stablecoin applications offer SEC-regulated yield-bearing products, including tokenized interests in funds managed by U.S. asset managers. But the company said some offerings tied to this effort remain in development and may not yet be available. According to its disclosure, this includes access to tokenized entitlements at the U.S. Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation and offerings linked to stablecoins. The broker’s registration therefore does not mean these products were available to investors at the time of the announcement. Plume also said regulatory registration does not mean regulators have endorsed the company or its products. The announcement gave no launch date for those services.
Plume Chief Executive Chris Yin said the company aims to connect stablecoin users with yield and investment opportunities under regulatory safeguards, and link U.S. investors to emerging onchain capital markets. He added: "Stablecoins bring a new generation onchain; what keeps them there is yield and access to real investment opportunities with full regulatory protection." The statement links the stablecoin user base with the investment products the company hopes to make available through the broker. The company says rights attached to the securities will remain part of investors’ holdings, alongside brokerage safeguards. The range of products and when they become available depend on completing the development Plume has described. The announcement gave no figures for expected customers or trading volume through Kinetiq Digital Securities.
The broker’s registration follows another regulatory step among Kinetiq companies: Plume said Kinetiq Transfer Agency registered with the SEC as a transfer agent in September 2025. In May 2026, EL7 reported that Plume had launched an onchain investment vault under a Bermuda license. Earlier EL7 coverage also addressed a partnership for yield products backed by U.S. Treasuries and the integration of well-known tokenized funds on the network. These developments place the U.S. broker’s activity within a broader expansion of tokenized-asset products, but involve entities and arrangements distinct from Kinetiq Digital Securities’ registration. Plume said its vault protocol had $250 million in total value locked, with flows of about $1 billion, as of September 30, 2026. It said those figures relate to the protocol and its affiliated vaults, not the new broker.
According to the SEC, brokers generally must register with it and obtain FINRA membership; FINRA oversees registered brokerage firms. The SEC urges investors to check company registrations using its official search tools. Plume’s announcement distinguishes the broker’s registration from approval of its products: the company says registration does not constitute regulatory endorsement of it or the offerings it plans to provide. Nor does the discussion of portfolio custody and working with stablecoin applications establish that every investor will be able to access every product. Some of the capabilities the company described remain in development, with no announced availability date. The next steps after the announcement center on completing those capabilities and making available the products Plume says will operate through the broker.