Key Takeaways:
Ether.fi allocated $100 million to a Plume real-world asset vault, giving its users access to institutional-grade yield previously reserved for select investors.
"Open institutional assets are how we build the next evolution of finance, through products people already use, distributed by platforms they already trust," Chris Yin, chief executive officer and co-founder of Plume, said.
The allocation comes from a mix of ether.fi's liquidity provider base, including funds, family offices and high-net-worth individuals, as well as managed capital from its existing liquid vaults that hold about $300 million in total value locked, Charles Mountain, head of ecosystem at ether.fi, told The Block. The Plume RWA vault bundles an overcollateralized credit pool, AAA-rated collateralized loan obligations and a total bond market exchange-traded fund from asset managers overseeing more than $10 trillion in assets.
The partnership marks an early test of a model where onchain neobanks connect directly to institutional asset issuers through shared infrastructure rather than fragmented intermediaries. Plume's vaults are supported by its recent Bermuda Monetary Authority license and SEC transfer agent approval through Kimber Transfer Agency, positioning the platform to expand compliant access to tokenized real-world assets.
The vault is accessible directly within ether.fi's interface, allowing eligible users to earn yield from tokenized RWAs without leaving the app. Ether.fi, the largest non-custodial neobank with more than $6 billion in customer deposits, joins a growing list of platforms distributing institutional assets through Plume's non-custodial vault architecture.
"The best financial products are both powerful and accessible," Mountain said. "The future growth of neobanks rests on being compliant, secure and providing value to our users."
Plume Nest Vaults, the company's flagship product, standardize institutional assets into compliant, non-custodial onchain vaults. The company has over $350 million in distributed asset value and counts Apollo Global Management, Galaxy Digital and Brevan Howard among its backers.
The launch comes as tokenized real-world assets continue to be one of the fastest-growing areas of crypto. Major asset managers including Apollo, WisdomTree, Hamilton Lane and BlackRock have expanded tokenization efforts over the past year as investors seek exposure to traditional financial products on blockchain networks.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
