Plume has launched nBND, a tokenized vault backed by Fidelity Total Bond ETF, according to the announcement. The product gives on-chain allocators direct exposure to a broader fixed-income portfolio, marking an expansion beyond the short-duration Treasuries and money-market assets that have dominated tokenized finance to date.
The vault holds positions in FBND, Fidelity's actively managed bond fund that tracks a diversified index across U.S. government, corporate, and mortgage-backed securities. By tokenizing the fund, Plume allows allocators to access longer-duration bond exposure without custody arrangements or traditional brokerage accounts, a shift in what on-chain fixed-income products have offered.
Tokenized assets in traditional finance have grown rapidly since 2023, driven largely by demand for yield-bearing positions accessible through blockchain infrastructure. Most early entrants in the space focused on short-dated Treasuries and cash equivalents, where custody and settlement are simpler and duration risk is minimal. FBND itself held approximately 28 billion dollars in assets under management as of the announcement date, according to fund data.
Plume operates as an infrastructure layer for tokenizing real-world assets on blockchain, having secured backing from major financial institutions and crypto-native investors. The firm has previously launched tokenized versions of other Fidelity products, building a relationship with the Boston-based asset manager that extends across multiple product classes.
The move shows longer-dated and more complex instruments entering tokenized finance. Where the early wave prioritized simplicity and regulatory clarity, newer entrants are testing whether fixed-income products with embedded credit and duration risk can operate efficiently on-chain. Fidelity's involvement adds institutional credibility to the experiment, though managing interest-rate risk and portfolio rebalancing on a distributed ledger introduces operational complexity that traditional custody does not.
Plume's expansion into active bond exposure marks a 12-month shift in the types of assets flowing onto blockchain platforms, from collateral-backed stablecoins and Treasury tokens to funds with embedded active management. The product's success will depend partly on whether on-chain settlement and custody mechanisms can handle the additional operational demands that active funds require.
The document to watch is Plume's next quarterly holdings report for nBND, which will show whether allocators are deploying material capital into the vault or treating the product as a proof-of-concept.
