Coinbase said on Tuesday that it had chosen Centrifuge as its preferred tokenization infrastructure and had made a strategic investment in the company.
Under the agreement, Centrifuge is positioned to serve as the default issuance layer for tokenized assets across the Coinbase ecosystem, including products on Base. The first wave of institutional assets is expected to be released to the Base in the coming weeks, the companies said.
Coinbase’s push into tokenized capital markets spans ETFs, credit, and structured products. The Centrifuge deal gives Coinbase an infrastructure partner for third-party asset managers who want to issue products on-chain, although it does not appear to be exclusive.
Coinbase Asset Management said last week that it would issue its CUSHY stablecoin credit fund through Superstate’s FundOS platform, and in March it tapped Apex Group to tokenize a share class of its Bitcoin Yield Fund on Base. Coinbase Ventures was also already an investor in Centrifuge and had backed a strategic round for 2022.
Centrifuge powers on-chain strategies for the Apollo, Janus Henderson and S&P Dow Jones Indices. It surpassed $1 billion in total value locked by mid-2025 and now has $1.66 billion, according to data from DeFiLlama.
The deal comes as real-world tokenized assets have grown to approximately $27 billion on-chain. Tokenized Treasuries and other fixed income products account for about $16 billion of that figure.
The RWA sector is currently led by Securitize and Ondo Finance, along with leading stablecoin issuer Tether and Circle through their tokenized gold product and money market fund, respectively.
“What matters now is not getting assets on chain, but getting the right assets on chain in the right way,” said Centrifuge CEO Bhaji Illuminati.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong had announced earlier Tuesday that the exchange was laying off 14% of its employees, saying artificial intelligence tools had made them redundant.
