Case Study: How Mineral Vault, Plume, and Nest Unlock Access to American Oil & Gas Onchain

In an industry-unprecedented move, Mineral Vault leveraged Plume’s full-stack Real World Asset finance (RWAfi) infrastructure to tokenize U.S. mineral interests in oil and gas properties - one of the most stable and lucrative, yet hard to acquire asset classes in the U.S. - democratizing access to Plume users around the world.

Through the integration of Arc for asset tokenization and Nest vaults for yield distribution, Mineral Vault transformed traditionally illiquid, permissioned assets into digital tokens from which yield could be distributed in a permissionless and globally accessible manner.

This case study explores how Plume’s full-stack architecture and ecosystem unlocked a multi-billion dollar asset class for users worldwide.

‍

"With Plume’s Arc tokenization engine, we took a historically fragmented and paper-based process and moved it onchain. What was once a complex, traditionally inaccessible asset locked behind layers of legal agreements became a digital token from which yield could be distributed efficiently and compliantly.

Once the tokens were issued, the next challenge was our go-to-market, distribution and yield delivery. This is where Nest vaults completely changed the game. Instead of relying on manual disbursement, we now had a system where users could seamlessly receive yield as programmable, onchain payouts, streamlining the experience.

The most powerful shift was in how these assets moved from permissioned to permissionless.

Traditionally, access to mineral interest returns was restricted to a select few. But by leveraging Plume’s compliance-first infrastructure, we enabled a model where these assets could exist in a way that met regulatory standards with the returns being accessible to a far broader audience than ever before."

Blake Morgan, Managing Partner of Mineral Vault

‍

What are Mineral Interests?

Mineral interests are a unique type of real estate ownership that grants the holder rights to underground resources such as oil, natural gas, and other hydrocarbons. These rights extend from approximately 100 meters below the surface to the Earth’s core and are separate and distinct from surface property rights.

Mineral interests can be leased to American energy companies, which extract resources in exchange for royalty payments to the mineral interest owner. This structure allows mineral interest owners to benefit from passive income, inflation protection, and long-term value appreciation, all while bearing virtually no costs or risks associated with the drilling or maintenance of the wells.

Key characteristics of mineral interests include:

• Stable Cash Flow – Owners receive monthly royalty payments based on resource production.
• Low Operating Costs – Unlike most traditional real estate investments, mineral interest owners do not bear costs for extraction, drilling, or maintenance, greatly limiting the operating costs incurred.
• Inflation Protection - Because produced hydrocarbons are sold at spot commodity prices each month (which themselves reflect the impact of inflation), mineral interest investments are largely considered inflation-protected assets.
• Diversification – When mineral interests from vastly different geographic areas and operators are thoughtfully pooled into a single investment (as Mineral Vault tokens do), concentration risks can be greatly reduced.
• Future Upside - Because mineral interests represent ownership in the property rather than the already-existing individual wells, tremendous upside potential can be realized if and when new wells are brought online on portfolio properties in the future.

What is Mineral Vault?

Mineral Vault is a pioneering platform simplifying access to U.S. mineral and royalty interests. These interests pertain to real world properties actively producing, or capable of producing, oil, natural gas, or other hydrocarbons.

By tokenizing these interests, Mineral Vault democratizes access to American oil and gas returns, allowing a global user base to participate in this unique and high-potential asset class. Each token represents an equity interest in an entity that holds revenue-generating financial interests in various American mineral properties, ensuring token holders receive royalty payments and other related income.

Built by the principals of Allegiance Oil & Gas, a firm with over $1 billion in AUM and decades of expertise in the oil and gas industry, Mineral Vault offers exposure to high-yielding, inflation-protected oil and gas royalties. The first offering includes over 2,500 producing wells across 9 U.S. states, with more than 10,000 gross acres of mineral interests.

The Challenge: Bringing U.S. Mineral Interests Onchain

Mineral interests are a form of real estate interest unique to the U.S. and have been historically inaccessible to non-U.S. investors. These assets generate stable, inflation-protected cash flow from oil and gas production royalties but have faced challenges such as:

• Liquidity Constraints – Mineral interests have traditionally been illiquid, requiring significant capital commitments and long holding periods. Selling these assets involves complex legal and administrative processes, limiting investor exit opportunities.
• Complex Title Verification – Initially acquiring mineral interests requires extensive due diligence and legal work to verify title authenticity and resolve disputes, caused by often-fragmented ownership records at county courthouses. This complexity creates a tremendous barrier for non-industry investors.
• Limited Accessibility – Historically, investing in mineral interests has been restricted to industry insiders and the U.S. accredited investors who invest with them, largely because the U.S. is the only country in the world where mineral interests are privately owned on a large scale. Further, high entry costs and jurisdictional limitations have prevented broader market participation.

The Solution: Tokenization and Distribution Through Plume’s RWAfi Stack

To address these challenges, Mineral Vault and Plume executed a structured process to tokenize and distribute mineral interest yields efficiently and compliantly:

1. Asset Selection & Structuring – Mineral Vault identified a $10M portfolio of high-yielding mineral interests, ensuring diversified holdings across 9 different U.S. states and over 10,000 gross acres.
2. Legal & Compliance Framework – Plume’s compliance tools enabled permissioned issuance, ensuring regulatory adherence at the token level.
3. Tokenization via Arc – Using Arc, Mineral Vault issued ERC-20 tokens representing fractional ownership in their first offering.
4. Perfect Provenance Onchain – From the moment assets are tokenized, future ownership transfers are perfectly indexed onchain, eliminating the title verification challenges which have historically plagued mineral interest investment.
5. Smart Wallet Integration – Users can directly access Nest vaults with their own self-custodial wallets.
6. Transition from Permissioned to Permissionless Yield – Infrastructure-level compliance allowed tokens to be featured in Nest vaults, all while maintaining AML/KYC safeguards.
7. Yield Distribution via Nest Vaults – Nest vaults automated the distribution of monthly oil and gas royalty income, converting it into stable, programmable yield streams for a global user base.

Plume’s full-stack solution and ecosystem was leveraged:

• Arc – a comprehensive end-to-end tokenization engine with 50+ modules covering compliant asset tokenization, onramps and offramps, identity verification, monitoring and sanctions, asset management tools, and more.
• Plume Chain – the first full-stack L1 RWA Chain and ecosystem purpose-built for RWAfi, enabling the rapid adoption and demand-driven integration of real world assets.
• Nest – the flagship staking protocol on Plume enabling users to earn institutional-grade yields through real world assets.

The Impact: A New Paradigm for Oil & Gas Yields

With Plume, Mineral Vault has now conducted the first-ever tokenization of mineral interests, and fundamentally changed how mineral interests are owned, traded, and monetized, bringing efficiency, accessibility, and security to an asset class that was previously difficult to access.

• Expanded Global Access – Tokenization has broadened access to mineral interest returns, making them available to a global audience beyond the U.S.. This opens up new capital sources and expands opportunity to a global user base.
• Automated Royalty Payments – Tokenization automates the distribution of royalties through onchain programmable payments via Nest vaults, providing a more streamlined and efficient system for users. This leads to more consistent, predictable, and auditable returns, all while limiting administrative costs.
• Scalable Growth Potential – With an initial successful tokenization of $10M in assets, Mineral Vault plans to tokenize over $150M in additional mineral assets by 2025. This demonstrates a scalable model for future real world asset tokenization.
• Secure and Compliant Environment – Plume’s compliance-first infrastructure ensures that tokenized assets adhere to AML/KYC regulations, maintaining institutional-grade security, all while preserving DeFi composability.

Looking Ahead

With the inaugural Mineral Vault offering successfully tokenized on Plume, and Nest vaults becoming the exclusive platform for tokenized mineral assets, Plume users gain unprecedented access to high-yield, inflation-protected returns, setting a new benchmark for asset tokenization and distribution.