The story of American finance has always been one of reinvention. From paper certificates to electronic records, from regional exchanges to global capital flows, leadership has been sustained by pairing innovation with guardrails. This tradition was carried forward in Washington, D.C., where a clear message was delivered by Plume’s co-founders, Teddy Pornprinya and Chris Yin, together with General Counsel Salman Banaei: the future of capital markets is tokenized, compliant, and open.
This was not presented as a demo-day pitch or speculative roadmap. Instead, a policy-working agenda was executed—meetings were held with senior staff from multiple Republican and Democratic Senate offices, policy advisors on the Senate Banking Committee and the House Financial Services Committee, and senior officials at both the SEC and U.S. Treasury. The objective was kept explicit: it was explained how responsibly implemented open blockchains can strengthen U.S. capital markets, extend the reach of the dollar, and lower the cost of capital for American businesses and communities.
The reception was unmistakable. Policymakers were not seeking slogans; credible partners were being sought. A plan, a platform, and a track record were put on the table by Plume.
Why Policymakers Are Listening Now
It is no longer controversial to recognize that real-world assets (RWAs) will anchor the next decade of finance. Tokenization has moved from whitepapers to production: treasuries, private credit, real estate, and even intellectual property and commodities are being issued, serviced, and traded onchain. Yet the policy debate is often muddled by conflations between RWAs and speculative crypto cycles.
The distinction that resonated in Washington was framed as follows:
RWAs are not a gamble on volatility; they constitute an operational upgrade to how capital is formed, issued, tracked, and distributed.
RWAs align with the core interests of U.S. financial leadership: the role of domestic markets is expanded, the reach of the U.S. dollar is extended, and the cost of capital for issuers and borrowers is reduced.
Open, compliant blockchains deliver traceability, programmability, and interoperability that legacy infrastructure struggles to match, especially in secondary markets and cross-border distribution.
This is not merely a philosophical case; it is a policy case. A dollar-denominated, compliant, and open onchain capital market can be made both more competitive and more secure. Investor access can be broadened (within appropriate KYC/KYB/AML constraints), frictional costs can be reduced, and regulatory visibility can be improved through transparent audit trails.
The GENIUS Act: A Foundation for the RWA Economy
This summer’s passage of the GENIUS Act—the first federal crypto legislation establishing a national framework for dollar-backed stablecoins—set the tone. One-to-one reserves in cash or Treasuries were mandated, full BSA/AML compliance was required, and federal oversight of issuers was instituted. The result was not a mere “greenlight for crypto,” but the professionalization of dollar tokens as financial market plumbing.
Why this matters for RWAs can be summarized as follows:
Funding rails become programmable. Stable, compliant dollar tokens can serve as instant-settlement collateral in primary issuance, coupon distribution, and secondary trading of tokenized assets.
Counterparty risk is contained. Clear reserve requirements and oversight align stablecoin infrastructure with the conservative expectations of institutional treasurers and risk committees.
Dollar reach expands. With a nationally recognized framework, dollar rails become more interoperable across platforms, venues, and jurisdictions—accelerating U.S.-centric capital formation.
The GENIUS Act is best viewed as a layer-zero policy upgrade: it establishes the connective tissue for compliant, onchain capital markets upon which RWAs can flourish.
Programmatic Compliance on an Open Chain
A straightforward position has been articulated by Plume: smart policy fuels smart markets. When regulatory expectations are designed into the infrastructure—rather than bolted on after the fact—more efficient markets with better investor protections are achieved. This is the essence of programmatic compliance.
Three assertions were advanced in D.C.:
Open blockchains and compliance are not mutually exclusive. Open ledgers with transparent audit trails are better suited for continuous oversight than fragmented, proprietary databases.
Regulatory goals can be achieved onchain with precision. Investor eligibility gating, transfer restrictions, token-level freeze/seize capabilities, and protocol blacklisting can be encoded and enforced at the protocol level.
Capital formation benefits from permissionless reach with compliant access. Broad distribution (wallets, exchanges, DeFi) combined with modular permissioning (KYC/KYB whitelists, jurisdictional controls) lowers costs and widens opportunity—without diluting controls.
These points are not theoretical. Plume’s RWA-focused public chain, RWAfi, embeds these properties at the protocol smart-contract layer.
Inside RWAfi: A Public Chain with Institutional Guardrails
Most blockchains have historically forced a trade-off: be truly open and struggle with compliance, or be compliant by closing the gates. That binary is rejected by RWAfi. The network is open by default and compliant by design.
Key Design Features
Transaction-level screening. Protocol-level controls are used to ensure that illicit actors cannot participate. Screening is not relegated to the application layer; it is enforced in the transactional substrate.
Token-level controls. Digital asset token-level freeze/seize—especially essential for securities tokens—enables court orders and regulatory directives to be executed precisely, avoiding collateral harm to unrelated market participants.
Protocol-level blacklisting. Sanctioned or malicious addresses can be excluded at the protocol layer, enabling enforcement by design rather than by hopeful policy.
Onchain whitelisting and modular permissioning. Transfer restrictions and investor eligibility aligned with jurisdictional rules, investor type, and offering structure can be configured. A 506(c)-style private placement can be operated with transfer constraints, then expanded to broader distribution as compliance allows.
Automated yield distribution. Programmatic flows for coupons, dividends, and principal are supported—removing manual spreadsheets, payment-file exports, and post-fact reconciliations.
Surveillance and disclosure primitives. Risk monitoring and market surveillance can be performed onchain, where data is real-time and tamper-evident. Onchain disclosures reduce opacity and accelerate audit and exam workflows.
This is what is meant by programmatic compliance: rules legible to both machines and regulators, executed consistently, and testable at any time.
From Policy Goals to Policy Tools
Traditional regulation relied on intermediaries to enforce rules—transfer agents, custodians, broker-dealers, and fund administrators. As finance moves onchain, many of these roles are increasingly implemented as logic rather than offices.
In a written response to the Senate Banking Committee’s July Request for Input, the following blueprint was advanced:
Encouragement (not mandates) for open blockchains with transparent audit trails, recognizing that transparency serves as a data layer for continuous compliance.
Token-level remediation powers. Remediation should be attached to assets—not only addresses—through freeze/seize functions to enable precise, lawful action.
-aligned blacklisting. Sanctions and illicit-finance controls should be harmonized with network-level enforcement, reducing duplicative burden at the application layer.
Onchain disclosure standards. Core reporting should be moved to machine-readable, verifiable formats (akin to XBRL, but blockchain-native), enabling programmable attestations and investor transparency.
Risk and market surveillance integrated into trading venues and asset contracts—avoiding after-the-fact patchwork.
By aligning the where (protocol) with the what (policy objectives), ambiguity and cost are reduced while outcomes are improved.
Why This Matters for the Real Economy
Policy is only as meaningful as the real-world improvements it unlocks. Three domains illustrate where tokenized, compliant markets can produce immediate, measurable impact:
1) Treasuries and Cash Management
With one-to-one reserves, dollar-backed stablecoins convert treasuries from settlement endpoints into programmable cash. Corporate treasurers and funds can:
Allocate to tokenized T-bills with real-time redemption rails.
Automate accruals and distributions via onchain schedules.
Lower operational overhead in collateral management and corporate actions.
For policymakers, the upside is direct: greater dollar reach, increased transparency, and reduced friction in short-term funding markets.
2) Private Credit at Scale
The expansion of U.S. private credit can be further enabled by tokenization’s precision tooling:
Issuer-owned contracts with transfer-gated ERC-20 shares preserve eligibility rules while enabling secondary liquidity.
Onchain servicing workflows (interest calculations, waterfall distributions, covenant tracking) reduce trust gaps and servicing costs.
Automated investor notices and disclosures elevate fairness and compress information asymmetry.
Programmatic compliance does more than protect investors; spreads are compressed as legal and operational frictions decline.
3) Housing and Community Finance
Programs such as Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC), Opportunity Zones, and CDFI Fund vehicles have historically relied on large institutions to intermediate capital. Meanwhile, private credit has evolved to channel smaller, specialized pools toward targeted opportunities.
By pairing permissionless distribution with compliant access controls, tokenized securitizations can:
Attract diverse capital sources to affordable housing and community development.
Improve liquidity in secondary markets via standardized, onchain data.
Reduce the cost of capital through competitive market-making and transparent risk signals.
Streamlined, SEC-aligned rules for securitization and tokenization can catalyze an MBS-style modernization—targeted to underserved markets, with compliance encoded at the asset level. Work is already being supported alongside initiatives like Purpose for Profit to unlock capital for affordable housing projects, translating policy into funding pipelines.
How RWAfi Operates in Practice: A Lifecycle View
A tokenized issuance on RWAfi typically proceeds through the following stages:
Structuring & KYC Framework
Investor classes (accredited, QIBs, institutional) and jurisdictions are defined.
Compliance rules are encoded into whitelists and transfer restrictions.
Primary Issuance
Transfer-restricted ERC-20 shares that represent economic exposure to the asset or vehicle are purchased by investors.
Settlement is performed using compliant dollar rails (stablecoins) with instant finality and programmatic receipts.
Ongoing Servicing
Onchain schedules govern coupon/dividend distributions via automated flows.
Covenants and trigger logic (e.g., coverage ratios) are encoded to emit alerts or restrict actions as required.
Secondary Liquidity
Whitelisted venues facilitate compliant secondary trading, subject to transfer controls.
Market surveillance monitors spreads, volumes, and anomalies, populating risk dashboards for issuers and regulators.
Events & Remediation
In response to legal orders, token-level freeze/seize functions enable precise action.
Protocol-level blacklists are updated to enforce sanctions or other directives.
Reporting & Audit
Onchain disclosures and machine-readable reports are assembled programmatically from ledger data, compressing audit cycles and exam burden.
The end state is a market that operates faster and cheaper for participants—and appears clearer and safer to regulators.
“Open and Regulated” as an Operating System
In D.C., a recurring question was raised: Can an open chain be safe for institutions? The response is grounded in two principles: visibility and control.
Visibility is enhanced on public networks where transactions can be analyzed in real time. Data on RWAfi is not locked in proprietary ledgers; it is observable by regulators, auditors, and counterparties.
Control is improved when enforcement tools exist at the protocol level. Token remediation, address exclusions, and rules-based transfer gating enable surgical control without sacrificing the permissionless infrastructure that drives innovation.
By combining visibility with control, RWAfi provides institutions with the confidence to operate and policymakers with the confidence to endorse.
A Bridge Already in Use
Washington was not approached to promote a prototype. Progress was reported and next steps were coordinated. A robust ecosystem is already operating:
200K RWA holders have experienced onchain ownership and programmable distributions.
200+ live protocols are building issuance, liquidity, analytics, custody, and compliance services on RWAfi’s primitives.
Policy evolves most effectively when working systems demonstrate public-interest benefits—lower costs, better transparency, and stronger safeguards—without requiring theory to substitute for evidence.
A Practical Policy Agenda for the Next 12–18 Months
A productive, bipartisan path forward emerged from Hill and agency engagements:
Codification of programmatic compliance patterns. Onchain disclosures, risk surveillance, and audit trails should be recognized as first-class regulatory artifacts.
Standardization of tokenized security controls. Token-level remediation and protocol-layer sanctions compliance should become baseline features for security tokens and RWA instruments.
Clarification of secondary-market distribution rules. Safe harbors should be provided for compliant, whitelisted trading among eligible investors—expanding liquidity without compromising protections.
Modernization of community finance channels. Tokenized securitizations should be piloted for LIHTC, Opportunity Zones, and CDFI programs, with machine-readable reporting to accelerate funding and improve oversight.
Harmonization of stablecoin rails with securities workflows. Building on the GENIUS Act, stablecoin reserve and disclosure standards should be aligned with collateral and settlement requirements for RWA issuance and trading.
Individually incremental, these steps collectively future-proof U.S. capital markets, preserving leadership in financial innovation while reinforcing defenses against abuse.
Addressing Tough Questions Head-On
Does an open chain make it easier for bad actors to move?
On RWAfi, the opposite is true. Screening is transactional and protocol-native, with blacklisting and freeze/seize tools available. Public chains enable universal monitoring, and remediation does not depend on private data-sharing agreements.
Will tokenization fragment markets across too many venues and assets?
Fragmentation is reduced when token standards and interoperable compliance modules are used. Onchain disclosures and unified surveillance establish cross-venue visibility that legacy markets rarely achieve.
How are investors protected?
Modular permissioning aligns read/write/transfer rights with investor eligibility. Automated disclosures and onchain audit trails elevate fairness and exam readiness. Programmatic rules reduce manual error and enforce consistency.
Can this scale to traditional volumes?
RWAfi has been architected for institutional throughput. More importantly, governance scales: compliance rules operate at protocol and asset layers, rather than as bespoke, siloed patches.
The Road Ahead in Washington
As draft bills progress through committees, open issues will continue to be debated. A unique role has been established for Plume at the intersection of DeFi and TradFi: translation and demonstration.
The following workstreams will be advanced:
Technical memos and policy templates will continue to be shared with committee staff and agencies.
Community-finance tokenizations will be piloted to demonstrate improved liquidity and more equitable capital access.
The issuer toolkit for transfer restrictions, disclosures, and remediation will be expanded—so that compliant issuance becomes the low-friction path.
Partnerships with exchanges, wallets, custodians, and analytics providers will be deepened to fortify distribution and surveillance layers.
The aim is not the winning of a policy argument; rather, a co-designed market structure is being pursued—one that keeps the U.S. competitive, protects investors, and reduces the cost of capital. This is the American playbook, updated for the onchain era.
What It Means for Issuers, Institutions, and Innovators
Issuers can employ issuer-owned contracts, transfer-gated ERC-20 shares, and programmatic distributions, while accessing compliant secondary liquidity without rebuilding plumbing.
Institutions can participate on a public, permissionless network where compliance is native, surveillance is continuous, and remediation is precise.
Builders can plug into RWAfi’s primitives to launch custody, analytics, and execution products with policy-aligned affordances from day one.
Communities can benefit from modernized capital channels that route private credit into real projects—such as affordable housing—underpinned by transparent onchain reporting.
This migration is not zero-sum. It is additive: more transparency, more interoperability, more participation—with stronger controls.
Open. Regulated. Unstoppable.
There are moments in financial history when infrastructure upgrades unlock new growth curves. The move from paper to electronic clearing did so; the digitization of market data did so as well. Today, programmatic compliance on an open blockchain is positioned to do so again.
Plume’s modular, open architecture has been built to accommodate global and national regulations without sacrificing the benefits of permissionless systems. Momentum is already visible: 200K RWA holders and 200+ protocols are live on the network. The bridge between DeFi and TradFi is not a metaphor—it is a highway already carrying traffic.
For policymakers, this highway offers a strategic asset: a stronger dollar, safer markets, broader participation, and lower costs. For issuers and investors, it delivers speed, clarity, and control. For communities, it promises capital access shaped by transparency rather than paperwork bottlenecks.
The next era of U.S. finance will belong to builders capable of reconciling two ideas once viewed as opposed: openness and regulation. On RWAfi, these ideas reinforce one another. With Plume, that future is not merely imaginable—it is operational.
Open. Regulated. Unstoppable.
That standard is being set. That invitation is being extended. And increasingly, that reality is being built—today.
