Tokenization is supposed to make markets faster and more accessible. But many on-chain versions of real-world assets have failed to deliver on that promise, offering poor liquidity, slow settlement and prices that stray from reality, argues Yuki Yuminaga, co-founder and CEO of Tenbin Labs.
His New York-based startup wants to change that by creating institutional-grade tokenized assets that closely track real-world prices, settle quickly, and generate returns.
Tenbin has raised $7 million in seed funding led by Galaxy Ventures, the venture capital arm of Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital (GLXY), with backing from Wintermute Ventures, GSR, Variant, Archetype, FalconX and others.
“We don’t think tokenization is just about putting things on chain,” Yuminaga said in an interview with CoinDesk. “It’s about making those assets better than before: faster to liquidate, more liquid and more usable.”
Instead of relying on custody-based wrappers, Tenbin uses CME futures contracts to set prices and manage exposure. This allows the protocol to more closely track real-world prices, while also capturing futures performance – the price difference between the futures and spot markets. That performance is transferred to users, without requiring direct access to banks or local governments.
“We can capture all those returns and offer them to users without even touching the Brazilian bank,” Yuminaga said. “All of this is done through our proprietary CME coverage system.”
Tenbin’s design allows for fast minting and redemptions, avoids fees under most conditions, and allows token holders to move freely across decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols. The first assets the company plans to introduce are gold and emerging market currencies such as the Brazilian real and the Mexican peso.
Its first product, a tokenized gold asset, is scheduled to launch early this year with support from major brokers including Hidden Road and StoneX. Next are currency-denominated tokens, which offer high-yield carry trade opportunities to on-chain users, Yuminaga said.
With growing interest in alternatives to US dollar-denominated stablecoins, Tenbin is targeting what Yuminaga called the next group of decentralized finance investors who are interested in “more profitable opportunities than simply holding US dollars.”
The project is betting that demand for more liquid and yielding tokenized assets will increase as cryptocurrency users look beyond basic exposure to the dollar and begin to seek better access to global markets without the friction of traditional financial barriers.
“If we can offer real prices, instant liquidity and performance in a single token,” Yuminaga said. “That’s where tokenization really pays off.”
