How Plume wants the SEC to draw the line on crypto vaults…

Plume Steps Into the Vault Debate

@plumenetwork has submitted its regulatory views to the @SECGov Crypto Task Force, ahead of a meeting held on September 22, 2026. The filing responds directly to Commissioner Hester Peirce's (@HesterPeirce) July 22 statement, in which she cautioned that crypto vaults and onchain lending strategies can still trigger federal securities laws depending on the specific facts and circumstances, even though much of the SEC's recent work has clarified that many crypto assets and activities fall outside those laws.

Peirce's statement, titled "Headstands and Summervaults," described vaults as tools that use smart contracts to allocate users' crypto assets to yield-generating activities such as staking and lending, noting that vaults fall along a spectrum ranging from "allocations determined solely by immutable smart contracts" to "allocations made at the sole discretion of another person or group of persons." She invited industry participants to engage with the SEC and offer feedback on how existing rules could better fit onchain finance.

Where Plume Thinks the Rules Should Apply

As the developer of the Nest vault protocol, Plume has a direct stake in where regulators draw the line. Nest is a DeFi yield aggregation protocol that enables users to swap stablecoins for vault tokens that represent a basket of institutional-grade yields from tokenized real-world assets such as treasuries, bonds, real estate, private credit, and ETFs.

In its submission, Plume argues that securities regulation should cover two specific layers: the curators who select yield strategies, and the vault tokens that investors hold as a result. The underlying code layer and vault administrators, by contrast, should remain outside the regulatory perimeter, except where those admin functions are already regulated, such as transfer agency work.

That framing is notable given Plume's own regulatory history. As a registered transfer agent, Plume manages digital securities and shareholder records directly onchain, supporting interoperability with the U.S. Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC) settlement network.

Depending on their design and structure, crypto vaults could raise investment contract or investment company issues, and onchain loans may bear the hallmarks of securities "notes." Plume's submission attempts to give the SEC a workable framework that captures the parts of the vault stack that carry genuine investor risk, without sweeping in the technical infrastructure beneath it.

Vaults have become one of DeFi's fastest-growing products, holding over $8 billion in assets, with both Coinbase and Robinhood having integrated vault products to offer yield on customer stablecoin balances. The scale of the market gives Plume's regulatory pitch added weight as the SEC works toward more formal guidance.

Sources:
SEC Commissioner Peirce: Headstands and Summervaults (July 22, 2026)
Skadden: SEC Commissioner Warns That Certain Crypto Activities May Trigger Securities Laws
CoinDesk: Plume Network Registered by SEC as Transfer Agent for Tokenized Securities