Coinbase, which has said it is looking to bring the world onchain, has tapped Centrifuge as a tokenization partner and made a strategic investment in the startup, Centrifuge CEO Bhaji Illuminati told The Block.

Centrifuge will now support turning traditional assets like exchange-traded funds, credit funds, structured products and other so-called real-world assets into onchain, tradable assets on Base, the blockchain incubated by Coinbase. 

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, though Illuminati noted that Coinbase has "historically made strong bets on teams that align to the long-term vision they have."

Like many crypto exchanges, Coinbase has been leaning into tokenization by slowly expanding its offering of non-crypto, blockchain-based assets, like equities. But the exchange has also stated ambitions to offer full prime brokerage, which, in the context of crypto, includes token issuance.

The announcement notes that Centrifuge provides tooling for tokenization, structuring, and yield APIs, as well as compliance tools and connections to DeFi protocols, providing an end-to-end stack that helps abstract away complexity while "maintaining institutional standards."

"By integrating our tokenization infrastructure with Coinbase's distribution across retail, institutional, and developer channels, we're establishing the foundation for high-quality assets to scale across their ecosystem with credibility and compliance," said Anil Sood, CSO and CGO of Centrifuge.

Indeed, distribution is the name of the game. Illuminati said the partnership is "starting with focused, high-demand products first," like "the most recognizable and highest-demand ETFs," and will expand from there.

Asked whether Centrifuge might be tapped to tokenize Coinbase's COIN stock, Illuminati said: "That's a goal of ours, certainly."

"The Centrifuge platform is designed to bring a much broader set of traditional financial products onchain over time. Long-term, we believe these instruments should be accessible wherever users are, through onchain rails. But markets need liquidity and distribution to work," she said. "RWA platforms bring the products and infrastructure, exchanges bring reach, users, and liquidity."

According to RWA.xyz, Base is currently a minor player in the RWA game, with about $240 million worth of assets represented on the network, excluding stablecoins. This ranks 14th by value, ahead of Aptos and behind Mantle. That said, Base is by some measure the most active Ethereum Layer 2 by transaction count.  

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Deepening ties

This is not the first tie-up between Centrifuge and Coinbase. Last year, Centrifuge launched the first-ever licensed onchain S&P 500 index fund, the Janus Henderson Anemoy S&P 500 Index Fund (SPXA), on Base, as well as its institutional-grade strategies JAAA and ACRDX.

Coinbase Ventures also participated in Centrifuge's $4 million strategic funding round in 2022 and backed its $15 million Series A in April 2024. As part of that Series A, Centrifuge announced plans to build RWA lending markets on Base.

Founded in 2017, Centrifuge has grown into one of the top tokenization platforms. The firm has lately doubled down on an institutional shift, forming relationships with Apollo, Janus Henderson, and S&P Dow Jones Indices.

In recent years, Centrifuge has launched a modular white label offering, an RWA Launchpad, and other compliant issuance tools. It also expanded it multi-chain offerings, including most recently a native deployment on Monad.

"We view Coinbase as a long-term partner in bringing institutional capital onchain," Sood said.  

Editor's note: Centrifuge is one of several tokenization partners.