This crypto startup is backing its token with limestone mines and hydropower plants
When the crypto industry talks about real-world assets (RWAs), the conversation usually stops at tokenized treasuries, equities, and money market funds.
Kula is taking the concept somewhere far less polished and potentially far more interesting.
Speaking on TheStreet Roundtable, Kula co-founder Micah Yeackley described a model that works more like a venture capital fund than a financial product wrapper.
The firm invests in natural resources and physical assets across emerging markets, takes equity, and backs its token with the value of those holdings.
“We are building basically a real-world asset backed token and we are investing into natural resources and real-world assets all over the world, building a diversified portfolio of those assets and backing our token with the value of the real assets,” Yeackley said.
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The holdings are not what most crypto investors would expect. Kula is focused on limestone mining, rare earths, precious metals, hydropower in Nepal, agricultural land, and even an electric bike company in Kenya.
The common thread is tangible assets in emerging markets with a deliberate impact investing lens.
“We act a lot like a venture capitalist fund where companies come to us looking for capital investment,” Yeackley said. “One of the big criteria that we look for is that we are an impact investment vehicle. We are always looking to identify some community that we can impact positively while we invest into a natural resource or real-world asset.”
What makes the model crypto-native rather than just a VC fund with a token is how Kula uses the blockchain after the investment is made. Each asset the firm invests in becomes what they call a “regional DAO.”
The mining partner or operating company on the ground posts geological surveys, price discovery data, and contracts directly on-chain. Investors can pull up all of that information through a QR code or a single click on Kula’s website.
“Every bit of information around that mine goes onto the blockchain, which then becomes transparent for all of our investors,” Yeackley said.
For industries like resource mining, where supply chains are notoriously opaque, that transparency layer is the real product. Yeackley acknowledged the firm is not going after the most conflict-heavy sectors like diamonds yet, citing geopolitical risk for a young company.
“The goal is to obviously not eliminate corruption,” Yeackley said. “But we want to move the needle. If we can move the needle a little bit to bring transparency into traditionally opaque industries, we want to do that.”
