How Abu Dhabi's Mubadala Capital Tokenized a $3.7 Billion Private Equity Fund with Coinbase and KAIO

The infrastructure partner for the tokenization was KAIO, a UAE-based tokenization specialist that handled the onchain issuance and compliance layer . Coinbase acted as both a distribution channel — via its Base network — and as a direct investor.

The $75 Million Raise and Coinbase's Balance Sheet

The fund attracted approximately $75 million in onchain commitments at launch, drawing interest from both traditional institutional investors and crypto-native allocators .

The standout element of the deal was Coinbase's decision to purchase the token for its own corporate balance sheet. This marks the first time a major US publicly listed company has used a regulated tokenized asset for native onchain treasury management . Brett Tejpaul, Head of Coinbase Institutional, described the move as reflecting "the growing maturity of regulated real-world assets and their potential role in institutional treasury operations" .

KAIO's Regulatory Framework Under ADGM

KAIO operates within the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) regulatory ecosystem, overseen by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) . ADGM maintains a multi-category digital asset framework covering Virtual Assets, Fiat-Referenced Tokens, Digital Securities, and Derivatives/Funds — with tokenized securities treated under the same rules as conventional securities, plus additional blockchain-specific requirements . In June 2026, ADGM approved the first admission of tokenized digital securities to its Official List, signaling that the infrastructure KAIO uses operates within an established securities law framework .

Note: The search results did not contain sufficient evidence to confirm KAIO's specific prior tokenization of approximately $150 million in institutional assets from firms such as BlackRock, Brevan Howard, and Hamilton Lane. The broader context — that KAIO has been active in institutional-grade tokenization — is consistent with the Mubadala partnership, but this particular claim could not be independently verified from the provided sources.

The Broader RWA Tokenization Market

The real-world asset tokenization market crossed $30 billion on-chain (excluding stablecoins) in early 2026 and reached approximately $33.5 billion by July 2026, according to the canonical tracker RWA.xyz . This represents roughly a 4× increase from early 2025, when the market was around $6 billion . The growth has been driven primarily by tokenized US Treasuries, private credit, commodities, and now private equity .

What This Milestone Signifies

• First sovereign wealth fund tokenization of a private markets strategy onchain: Mubadala manages approximately $430 billion in assets. Putting a live private equity fund on public blockchains is a watershed moment for institutional adoption .
• A US public company using a regulated tokenized asset for treasury management: Coinbase's decision to hold the token on its balance sheet — rather than merely offering it to clients — signals that tokenized RWAs are seen as legitimate corporate financial instruments, not speculative products .
• Multi-chain distribution from day one: Launching simultaneously on Solana, Base, and Sui shows that tokenized private market funds can be designed for blockchain-agnostic access rather than locked to a single network .
• Regulatory maturity in Abu Dhabi: The deal was executed under ADGM's FSRA framework, demonstrating that a clear digital securities regime can support real-money institutional tokenizations without regulatory shortcuts .