Media: Coinbase and Apex Group will launch a tokenized money market fund

What’s new? Leading US centralized crypto exchange (CEX) Coinbase plans to launch a tokenized money market fund, sources told CoinDesk. According to them, tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs) such as securities and real estate is actively gaining popularity and becoming one of the trends in the crypto space.

CoinDesk’s material

What else is known? According to sources, this trend started gaining popularity after the successful initiative of BlackRock: the world’s largest investment company in March launched a tokenized treasury bond fund BUIDL, which has since accumulated assets under management worth $500 million.

BlackRock launched the BUIDL fund on the Ethereum blockchain in conjunction with digital asset manager Securitize. BlackRock later led Securitize’s $47 million funding round.

For investors, tokenized funds offer many potential benefits, including the transparency inherent in blockchain assets and the potential for increased liquidity, while issuers can use them to increase trading volumes.

The fund is being launched by Coinbase’s asset management division, Coinbase Asset Management. The division was launched in March 2023, after the exchange acquired One River Digital Asset Management.

To launch the fund, the exchange is partnering with Bermuda-based Apex Group, which manages more than $3 trillion in assets across a variety of funds.

The parties to the deal themselves declined to comment to the media.

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In June, spot trading volume on Coinbase totaled $58,95 billion, down by 15,4% for the month. The bulk of traffic to the platform’s website comes from the US (60%), UK (5%), and Germany (3%), with traffic down by 11% from May to June to 34,5 million users.

Earlier this month, the Mantra blockchain team tokenized $500 million worth of luxury real estate from Dubai-based developer MAG Group. And Italian state bank Cassa Depositi e Prestiti partnered with investment bank Intesa Sanpaolo to issue $27,2 million worth of digital bonds on the Polygon blockchain.

Also in July, the launch of the Magnify Cash lending DeFi protocol in Ethereum and Base networks was announced. With its help, users will be able to borrow against RWA collateral.