Backed Finance, a Swiss-based tokenization firm, said Friday it has expanded its tokenized short-term U.S. Treasury offering to cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase's Base blockchain.
The issuance marks the first real-world asset token on the Base network, which also hosts the popular social tokenization platform Friend.Tech.
Backed's bIB01 crypto token, a blockchain-based version of BlackRock's short-term U.S. Treasuries exchange-traded fund, provides a 5.25% annual yield to investors. The offer is available to qualified investors and licensed distributors who passed the firm's know-your-customer and anti-money laundering checks. Investors and individuals from the U.S. are barred from buying the token.
Cryptocurrency has become one of the hottest trends in crypto this year, with the wraparound of traditional financial instruments such as government bonds, private equity or credit wrapping them in a token form and putting them on blockchains. The value of tokenized assets could mushroom to $16 trillion by 2030, according to a Boston Consulting Group report.
The U.S. Treasuries are a gateway for tokenization efforts, as many digital asset investors, fund managers, crypto firms and decentralized autonomous organizations look for these products for their high yield and low-risk status. The tokenized treasuries market has experienced a surge of sixfold growth this year, with asset management firm Franklin Templeton accounting for the most, according to rwa.xyz data.
Backed explained that Base offers a 'less-cost, developer-friendly way to build on-chain,' adding that while its code is interoperable with Ethereum, transaction fees are ten times cheaper.