In January the Libre fund tokenization protocol unveiled plans to partner with asset managers Breven Howard and Hamilton Lane. Today it announced its launch, starting with enabling access to the BH Master Fund and a USD money market fund invested in BlackRock Treasury ETFs.
Libre is a joint venture of Nomura’s digital asset arm Laser Digital and Webn, the incubator founded by Alan Howard. He is also co-founder and former CEO of Brevan Howard.
The protocol targets the alternative investment sector known for its frictions in distribution. It’s a B2B protocol that brings together asset managers, wealth advisors, and institutional or accredited investors. Tokenization helps to address the high costs involved in fund distribution. A big part is automating the legal and regulatory aspects based on the fund’s jurisdiction and which investors are eligible.
While Libre’s goal is alternatives, the USD money market fund acts as a place to park money not currently invested. Libre arranged the tokenization using a feeder fund, a Singapore Variable Capital Company (VCC), which is the same structure used for the initial tokenizations.
“Libre’s objective is to provide unprecedented access to top-tier alternative investments complemented by provisioning scalable value-add services, such as the money market facility that we have launched, followed by our collateralised lending service targeted for later this year,” said Libre’s CEO and founder, Dr. Avtar Sehra.
The protocol uses its own layer 2 blockchain that links to the Polygon mainnet. It also has a minimal viable product (MVP) of the Libre Gateway, enabling Polygon mainnet users to access the protocol. It plans to integrate with other blockchains.
