Coinbase and Apex Debut Tokenized Bitcoin Fund on Base
Coinbase's institutional arm, Coinbase Asset Management (CBAM), launched a tokenized share class for its Bitcoin Yield Fund on March 19, 2026. The move was executed in partnership with Apex Group, a global fund administrator supporting $3.5 trillion in assets. The new tokenized shares run on Base, Coinbase's proprietary Ethereum Layer 2 network, allowing approved investors to access a yield-generating bitcoin product directly on-chain. The fund, initially available to non-U.S. institutional investors, generates returns by selling call options and participating in lending arrangements, offering a compounded return strategy beyond simple price appreciation.
Apex Group Commits to $100 Billion Tokenization Push
The collaboration highlights Apex Group's aggressive strategy to integrate blockchain technology across its services. The firm is leaning heavily into tokenization, having previously acquired specialist Tokeny, which facilitated over $32 billion in tokenized assets. Apex has publicly stated its goal to tokenize $100 billion in funds by June 2027. To manage compliance, the Coinbase Bitcoin Yield Fund shares use the ERC-3643 token standard, which hard-codes investor eligibility rules into the token itself. This automated system restricts transactions to pre-approved wallets, replacing manual compliance checks and reducing operational friction for institutional fund movements.
Wall Street Giants Embrace Tokenized Assets
This launch is a key development in a larger market shift where traditional financial titans are bringing real-world assets (RWAs) onto blockchain rails. Major firms like BlackRock, Fidelity, and Franklin Templeton have already introduced tokenized funds to improve settlement times and cut costs. The trend extends to exchange operators, with Nasdaq and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) pursuing partnerships to list tokenized stocks. This broader adoption underscores the enormous perceived potential of the tokenization market, with forecasts from McKinsey projecting a $2 trillion market by 2030 and a joint report from BCG and Ripple targeting $18.9 trillion by 2033.
