Key Takeaways
Mubadala Capital, the asset management arm of an Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund with about $430 billion under management, launched a tokenized version of a private markets strategy for qualified investors on July 23.
The fund runs on Coinbase's Base network, Solana and Sui using infrastructure from the UAE tokenization firm KAIO, and has already drawn about $75 million in onchain assets.
Coinbase took exposure to the fund on its own balance sheet, an early case of a public crypto company holding a tokenized private markets product as a treasury asset.
Mubadala Capital brought one of its private markets funds onchain on Thursday, making the asset management arm of Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund one of the largest firms yet to embrace tokenization. The manager, which oversees about $430 billion, said it launched a tokenized version of a private markets strategy for qualified investors using KAIO, a UAE tokenization firm, CoinDesk reported.
The fund is available on Coinbase's Base network, Solana and Sui, and has already attracted about $75 million in onchain assets. Coinbase is also holding exposure to the fund on its own balance sheet, one of the first times a public crypto company has put a tokenized private markets product on its books as a treasury asset. The companies did not disclose the size of that investment.
"Bringing it onchain extends that access to a new class of qualified investors," said Max Franzetti, head of Mubadala Capital Solutions.
KAIO, which raised $8 million from Tether in April, now administers about $144 million in tokenized funds, with clients including Hamilton Lane, Brevan Howard and Laser Digital. Mubadala joins a lengthening list of large managers, among them BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, Apollo, Fidelity and Invesco, that have put funds on blockchain rails, mostly Treasuries, money market funds and private credit.
Citi projects tokenized securities could reach about $5.5 trillion by 2030, and Boston Consulting Group and Ripple estimate $18.9 trillion across all asset classes by 2033. Turning fund shares into tokens can widen the investor base and let those shares serve as collateral or plug into other onchain applications.
The move lands the same month the DTCC ran its first live trades of tokenized stocks, ETFs and Treasurys, and weeks after the United Kingdom pulled 54 firms into a tokenization taskforce for its wholesale markets. The pattern here is hard to ignore, sovereign money and a public crypto company are now on the same tokenized cap table. Worth watching.
People Also Ask
What did Mubadala Capital tokenize?
Mubadala Capital tokenized one of its private markets investment strategies for qualified investors, launched July 23 on Coinbase's Base network, Solana and Sui using KAIO's infrastructure.
What is KAIO?
KAIO is a UAE-based tokenization firm, backed by Tether, that issues and administers tokenized funds onchain. It holds about $144 million in tokenized funds for clients including Hamilton Lane and Brevan Howard.
Why did Coinbase invest in the Mubadala fund?
Coinbase took exposure to the tokenized fund on its own balance sheet, an early example of a public crypto company holding a tokenized private markets product as a treasury asset. The size was not disclosed.
How big could tokenization get?
Citi projects tokenized securities could reach about $5.5 trillion by 2030, while Boston Consulting Group and Ripple estimate $18.9 trillion across all asset classes by 2033.