According to CoinDesk, as blockchain technology seeks mainstream acceptance in the United States Congress, compliance-focused crypto projects are optimistic about a potential surge in blockchain-based real-world assets (RWAs) due to a more favorable regulatory environment. Plume, a startup in this space, has secured $10 million in seed funding to develop the first layer-2 blockchain specifically designed for RWAs. The funding round was spearheaded by Haun Ventures and saw contributions from Galaxy Ventures, Superscrypt, A Capital, SV Angel, Portal Ventures, and Reciprocal Ventures.
Plume's Ethereum-based blockchain is designed to simplify the process of transferring off-chain assets onto blockchains. This includes navigating the complex paperwork, custodial requirements, and other necessary steps to bring assets like real estate, art, and certain financial instruments onto blockchains. The company stated that despite the RWA industry being one of the fastest-growing verticals in crypto today, there has not been a permissionless blockchain equipped with full-stack RWA infrastructure to deploy any asset class compliantly. Plume's robust DeFi ecosystem allows users to perform a range of operations with RWAs, including earning yield, borrowing/lending, trading, and speculating with leverage.
The technology underpinning Plume is based on Arbitrum Nitro, a framework for creating layer-2 'rollup' chains that can quickly and affordably write transactions to Ethereum. This technology should facilitate easy interoperability and asset swapping across other chains in the Arbitrum Orbit ecosystem. Plume co-founder Chris Yin stated that the current process of getting an asset on-chain can take up to two years before a single line of code can be written for a protocol, which he described as a 'ridiculous' and duplicative way of doing things. Plume aims to standardize this process.
Plume offers a comprehensive set of features for tokenizing an asset, including setting up an entity, filing paperwork, taking custody of assets, managing cap tables, on/off-ramping, and know-your-customer procedures. Yin stated that Plume currently has over 80 projects deploying real-world assets onto its private test network, including collectibles, private credit, and real estate. Plume plans to open its testnet to the public within a month, with a full release to follow later.