Plume Demands Faster Rulemaking, Criticizes SEC's 10-Month Delay
Plume's General Counsel, B. Salman Banaei, testified before the House Financial Services Committee on March 25, urging the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to create a direct path for decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols to register as Alternative Trading Systems (ATS). Banaei argued that the SEC's current focus on a limited "innovation exemption" is misguided and too slow, creating uncertainty that prevents large institutions from committing capital and resources. He noted that while a regulatory sandbox seemed reasonable a year ago, the lack of progress has made a more durable solution urgent.
When you put volume limits and product limits…you’re not going to attract the large institutions, because they’re going to have to build out to infrastructure and allocate resources to something that may or may not exist in two three years.
— B. Salman Banaei, General Counsel at Plume.
EU's DLT Pilot Shows Limited Results After Three Years
To support his case against a prolonged sandbox phase, Banaei highlighted the European Union's DLT Pilot Regime. A June 2025 report from the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) on the program, then in its third year, revealed its limited impact. The report confirmed that only three market infrastructures had received authorization, and trading activity was "extremely limited." This outcome was attributed to the high costs and operational friction of building new DLT infrastructure that must run parallel to legacy systems, a key obstacle that Banaei warns the U.S. will face without a clear, permanent regulatory structure.
Industry Giants Enter Tokenization as Regulatory Calls Intensify
The push for regulatory clarity extends beyond Plume, which received SEC approval as a registered transfer agent in October 2025. Asset management firm Fidelity also recently submitted a letter to the SEC, requesting a comprehensive framework for broker-dealers to handle tokenized assets. The calls for clearer rules grow louder as major financial institutions, including BlackRock and Franklin Templeton, actively move into the tokenization space. This market momentum contrasts sharply with the measured pace of regulators, underscoring the industry's demand for a defined pathway to bring real-world assets on-chain within a fully compliant U.S. framework.
