Coinbase Asset Management is creating a tokenized money-market fund, according to four people familiar with the plan.
Tokenization of real-world assets is a hot corner of crypto. BlackRock's tokenized U.S. Treasuries fund quickly grabbed $500 million of assets this year.

The asset management arm of U.S.-listed cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase (COIN) is creating a tokenized money-market fund, jumping into one of the hottest crypto-powered corners of finance, according to four people familiar with the plan.

Tokenization, or representing ownership of real-world assets (RWAs) through blockchain-based products, has become one of the big trends in crypto of late. BlackRock, the world's biggest asset manager, introduced a fund called BUIDL that holds U.S. Treasuries. That fund quickly hit $500 million of assets following its introduction in March.

For investors, tokenized funds provide numerous potential benefits, including the transparency provided by blockchain-linked assets and the possibility of greater liquidity. For issuers, there are efficiency gains.

For Coinbase Asset Management specifically, this would represent an expansion of the company's already publicly known attempt to break into the tokenization space. In December, the company received in-principle approval from an Abu Dhabi regulator to start tokenizing traditional assets on Base, the exchange's Ethereum scaling network.

Two of the people familiar with the matter said Coinbase Asset Management has been working with Bermuda-based Apex Group to help facilitate its tokenized fund. Apex services over $3 trillion of assets across custody, administration, depositary and managed funds.

In March 2023, Coinbase acquired One River Digital Asset Management, which led to the creation of Coinbase Asset Management.

Coinbase declined to comment. Apex Group did not comment by publication time.

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Ian Allison

Ian Allison is a senior reporter at CoinDesk, focused on institutional and enterprise adoption of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. Prior to that, he covered fintech for the International Business Times in London and Newsweek online. He won the State Street Data and Innovation journalist of the year award in 2017, and was runner up the following year. He also earned CoinDesk an honourable mention in the 2020 SABEW Best in Business awards. His November 2022 FTX scoop, which brought down the exchange and its boss Sam Bankman-Fried, won a Polk award, Loeb award and New York Press Club award. Ian graduated from the University of Edinburgh. He holds ETH.