Coinbase Asset Management’s Anthony Bassili says the Bitcoin Yield Fund’s tokenized share class checks “identity and eligibility at the token level” for compliance.
Coinbase has brought its Bitcoin Yield Fund onto its Base blockchain, launching a tokenized share class for the fund in partnership with the financial services firm Apex Group.
Apex said in a statement on Thursday that the tokenized share class of Coinbase Asset Management’s fund “is set up to interact with compatible platforms, wallets, and infrastructure without compromising compliance.”
Coinbase Asset Management president Anthony Bassili said that the share class integrates “identity and eligibility at the token level” for regulatory compliance.
Financial institutions have been tokenizing stocks, bonds, funds, commodities and real estate on the blockchain in search of lower costs, faster settlement and round-the-clock trading.
Asset managers like BlackRock, Fidelity Investments and Franklin Templeton have already launched tokenized funds on-chain.
Apex enables institutions to access ERC‑3643 tokens
The tokenized share class of Coinbase’s fund, which offers exposure to Bitcoin (BTC) and yield, will be available on Base only to institutional and accredited investors outside of the US.
The share class uses the ERC‑3643 permissioned token standard to ensure only eligible investors have access to the Bitcoin yield product.
Coinbase plans to launch a tokenized share class of the Coinbase Bitcoin Yield Fund for US investors in the future.
Related: SEC gives go-ahead to Nasdaq for tokenized trading trial
Apex acts as the on-chain transfer agent for the tokenized Coinbase Bitcoin Yield Fund, and is tasked with handling token ownership, enforcing compliance and transfer rules and maintaining a record of transactions on the Base blockchain.
Coinbase launched a non-US version of the Coinbase Bitcoin Yield Fund in April and a US version in October.
The non-US version targets a 4% to 8% annual return in Bitcoin. Coinbase said at the time that it launched the product to address Bitcoin’s inability to generate native yield, unlike proof-of-stake assets such as Ether (ETH) and Solana (SOL).
Magazine: Are DeFi devs liable for the illegal activity of others on their platforms?