From Wellhead to Wallet: The Journey of Tokenized Energy Income

Oil and gas royalties have long been valued for their ability to generate steady, inflation-protected income. Yet, for decades, access to these assets was limited to industry insiders and institutions, and even they endured slow payments, paper checks, and opaque accounting.

Mineral Vault I changed all of this at launch. By tokenizing ownership in real, producing US mineral interests, Mineral Vault has transformed the traditional royalty distribution model into a headache-free process with a blockchain-native yield stream.

Step 1: Production & Sale of Hydrocarbons

It all begins at the wellhead. More than 2,500 producing wells across 9 U.S. states generate monthly revenue from the sale of crude oil and natural gas they produce.  Mineral Vault I owns a royalty interest in all of these wells.

Operators sell the produced hydrocarbons to midstream or downstream purchasers, who then remit payment to the mineral interest owners based on their ownership and royalty percentages.  This results in steady income for the Mineral Vault I Ltd tokenized entity.

Because the portfolio is widely diversified, spanning over 150 operators and 10,000 gross acres, the production base is resilient, insulating investors from the impact of any single well, geographic play, or operator.

Step 2: Net Revenue Calculation

Once gross revenue from oil and gas sales is received, deductions are applied for property taxes and minor joint-interest billing expenses. For example; between June and August 2025, gross monthly revenues ranged from $115,000 to $158,000, while expenses averaged under 3% of gross revenue, leaving healthy monthly net income.

From this, a 10% management fee is paid to Mineral Vault LLC, covering property operations, reporting, and investor administration.

The remaining 90% of net revenue becomes the dividend pool distributed to token holders.

Step 3: On-Chain Dividend Distribution

In the traditional royalty model, payments can take months. Checks are mailed. Tax forms are delayed. Ownership changes are buried in courthouse paperwork.

With Mineral Vault’s tokenized structure, those inefficiencies vanish.

Leveraging Plume Network’s Arc tokenization engine and Nest Vault infrastructure, royalty income is automatically converted into USDC stablecoin and allocated proportionally to token holders each month.

For example, in August 2025, token holders received an implied 13.34% annualized pre-tax yield, deposited directly to their wallets through on-chain distribution.

Every dividend is:

• Programmable: Executed by smart contract according to ownership share.
• Transparent: Every dividend report is published publicly at mineralvault.io/transparency.
• Auditable: Investors can reconcile on-chain payouts with off-chain property performance.  All checks received from operators are publicly available for audit.

Step 4: Automated Reporting & Tax Readiness

Each dividend cycle concludes with a detailed Dividend Report, outlining:

• Gross revenue by source (crude oil, natural gas, lease bonuses, etc.)
• Expense breakdowns
• Net revenue and total dividends
• Token circulation and payout ratios
• Implied annualized yields

This degree of monthly financial transparency is rare in private energy investment, and unprecedented in tokenized assets.

Beyond visibility, the digital-first model simplifies record-keeping and tax compliance. Each report provides verifiable documentation of income streams, deductions, and ownership, making year-end reporting seamless.

Step 5: Continuous Cash Flow; Continuous Access

Mineral interests are real property rights, with revenue from producing wells continuing for years or even decades. As operators drill new wells, those income streams can extend even further.

Tokenization makes this cash flow divisible, transferable, and instantly accessible. Investors gain exposure to one of the most stable yield streams in the U.S. economy, enhanced by the speed, transparency, and liquidity of blockchain infrastructure.

Why This Matters

Tokenized yield from real-world energy assets represents something transformative: the fusion of traditional cash flow with programmable finance.

For investors, it means:

• Passive income from proven American oil & gas assets.
• Real-time visibility into asset performance.
• Access to yield without institutional or geographic barriers.

For the broader market, it offers a blueprint for how billions in private, income-producing assets, oil and gas, real estate, infrastructure, and beyond, can responsibly and compliantly move on-chain.

Every USDC distribution from Mineral Vault isn’t just a payment, it’s proof of concept. It demonstrates how blockchain can modernize a century-old industry, aligning physical energy production with the precision of digital finance.

By bridging the gap between the real and digital economies, Mineral Vault is doing more than tokenizing assets. It’s unlocking energy wealth for investors everywhere, and charting a path toward a more efficient, transparent, and accessible financial future.