Coinbase taps Centrifuge as preferred tokenization backbone, takes equity stake

Coinbase said Tuesday it had chosen Centrifuge as its preferred tokenization infrastructure and made a strategic investment in the firm.

Under the deal, Centrifuge is positioned to serve a larger role for tokenized assets across Coinbase’s ecosystem, including products on Base. The first wave of institutional assets is expected to launch on Base in the coming weeks, the firms said.

Coinbase’s push into tokenized capital markets spans ETFs, credit and structured products. The Centrifuge deal gives Coinbase an infrastructure partner for outside asset managers that want to issue products onchain, though it doesn’t appear to be exclusive.

Coinbase Asset Management said last week it would issue its CUSHY stablecoin credit fund through Superstate’s FundOS platform, and in March tapped Apex Group to tokenize a share class of its Bitcoin Yield Fund on Base. Coinbase Ventures was also already an investor in Centrifuge, having backed a 2022 strategic round.

Centrifuge powers onchain strategies for Apollo, Janus Henderson and S&P Dow Jones Indices. It crossed $1 billion in total value locked in mid-2025 and now has $1.66 billion, according to DeFiLlama data.

The deal comes as tokenized real-world assets have grown to roughly $27 billion onchain. Tokenized treasuries and other fixed income products account for about $16 billion of that.

The RWA sector is currently led by Securitize and Ondo Finance, along with leading stablecoin issuer Tether and Circle via their tokenized gold product and money market fund, respectively.

“What matters now isn’t getting assets onchain, it’s getting the right assets onchain in the right way,” Centrifuge CEO Bhaji Illuminati said.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong had announced earlier Tuesday that the exchange was laying off 14% of its employees, saying AI tooling had made them redundant.

CORRECTION (May 5, 4:38PM): Corrects to clarify Centrifuge’s role in the second paragraph.