Key Takeaways
- • Galaxy Digital, through its venture capital arm Galaxy Ventures, led a $7 million seed funding round for Tenbin Labs, a New York-based tokenized asset startup focused on blockchain-based gold and foreign exchange markets.
- • Tenbin differentiates from competing tokenized asset platforms by anchoring pricing to CME futures contracts rather than relying on custody-based wrappers, enabling faster settlement, lower fees, and yield capture through futures basis opportunities.
- • The startup plans to launch a tokenized gold product in early 2026, followed by high-yield foreign exchange tokens tied to emerging market currencies including the Brazilian real and Mexican peso, targeting DeFi users seeking alternatives to U.S. dollar stablecoins.
- • Co-investors in the round include Wintermute Ventures, GSR, Variant, Archetype, and FalconX, reflecting institutional appetite for improved tokenized asset infrastructure.
- • Tenbin CEO Yuki Yuminaga positions the company's approach around solving real-world shortcomings in existing tokenized assets—namely thin liquidity, slow settlement, and price drift from underlying assets.
Summary
Mike Novogratz's Galaxy Digital has led a $7 million seed funding round for Tenbin Labs, a New York-based fintech startup building institutional-grade tokenized assets on blockchain rails. Galaxy Ventures, the venture capital division of the publicly traded Galaxy Digital (GLXY), anchored the investment alongside a syndicate that includes Wintermute Ventures, GSR, Variant, Archetype, and FalconX.
Tenbin Labs targets a structural weakness in current tokenized asset offerings: poor liquidity, slow settlement times, and prices that diverge from real-world benchmarks. Rather than adopting standard custody-based wrapper structures, Tenbin uses CME futures contracts to anchor pricing and manage portfolio exposure. This architecture enables faster settlement, reduces fees, and allows the protocol to capture yield from futures basis dynamics—a mechanism that appeals to both retail DeFi participants and institutional traders seeking more efficient asset bridges.
The startup's near-term roadmap includes launching a tokenized gold product in early 2026, followed by high-yield foreign exchange tokens tied to emerging market currencies such as the Brazilian real and Mexican peso. These FX products are positioned to appeal to DeFi users seeking yield alternatives to U.S. dollar-denominated stablecoins, particularly in regions with volatile domestic currencies. CEO Yuki Yuminaga framed the company's mission around substantive asset improvement rather than mere onchain replication: "We don't think tokenization is just about putting things onchain. It's about making those assets better than they were before—faster to settle, more liquid, and more usable."
Tenbin Labs targets a structural weakness in current tokenized asset offerings: poor liquidity, slow settlement times, and prices that diverge from real-world benchmarks. Rather than adopting standard custody-based wrapper structures, Tenbin uses CME futures contracts to anchor pricing and manage portfolio exposure. This architecture enables faster settlement, reduces fees, and allows the protocol to capture yield from futures basis dynamics—a mechanism that appeals to both retail DeFi participants and institutional traders seeking more efficient asset bridges.
The startup's near-term roadmap includes launching a tokenized gold product in early 2026, followed by high-yield foreign exchange tokens tied to emerging market currencies such as the Brazilian real and Mexican peso. These FX products are positioned to appeal to DeFi users seeking yield alternatives to U.S. dollar-denominated stablecoins, particularly in regions with volatile domestic currencies. CEO Yuki Yuminaga framed the company's mission around substantive asset improvement rather than mere onchain replication: "We don't think tokenization is just about putting things onchain. It's about making those assets better than they were before—faster to settle, more liquid, and more usable."
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