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LayerZero, Centrifuge Team Up to Expand Multichain Access for Tokenized Funds

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LayerZero, Centrifuge Team Up to Expand Multichain Access for Tokenized Funds

Centrifuge’s largest tokenized fund, JTRSY, is among the first of its products to adopt LayerZero.

LayerZero and Centrifuge are partnering to integrate Centrifuge’s institutional tokenization infrastructure into the interoperability protocol’s ecosystem, according to a press release shared exclusively with The Defiant. The companies said that the deal aims to make access and distribution of tokenized real world asset (RWA) products broader with multichain reach from launch.

The partnership addresses the issue of blockchain fragmentation for institutional tokenization. Via LayerZero’s OApp standard, issuers can extend products across over 165 blockchain networks, while retaining a unified supply, according to the release.

The first Centrifuge products to adopt LayerZero includes three of its tokenized funds, JTRSY — its largest by total value, with nearly $861 million in tokenized U.S. Treasuries —  as well as JAAA, and SPXA, which launched in September as the first licensed tokenized S&P 500 index fund.

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The three tokenized funds will expand across Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche, BNB Chain, Base, Optimism, and HyperEVM, per the release. Data from RWAxyz shows that JTRSY is currently mostly on Ethereum, while SPXA is exclusively on Coinbase’s Base.

The partnership also sets the stage for Centrifuge assets to be deployed on Zero, LayerZero’s recently launched Layer 1 blockchain, backed by Citadel Securities, The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, Intercontinental Exchange, and Google Cloud, and designed as core infrastructure for financial markets.

Bryan Pellegrino, CEO of LayerZero Labs, told The Defiant:

“We want partners building on LayerZero to extend into Zero, and Centrifuge, with its institutional client base and tokenization suite, is exactly the kind of asset we’re designing the network for.”

For its part, Centrifuge said that it sees deploying on LayerZero’s Zero as a plan for the future, when the L1 has a more established user base and liquidity.

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“As part of our broader multichain distribution strategy, we see Zero as an important ecosystem over time,” Anil Sood, chief strategy and growth officer at Centrifuge Labs, told The Defiant, continuing:

“Our objective is to make key products such as JTRSY, JAAA, and SPXA accessible across the networks where liquidity, users, and onchain utility are forming.”

LayerZero Labs’ told The Defiant that the interoperability protocol currently has over $90 billion in assets secured, and more than 700 projects building in its ecosystem, though The Defiant was unable to independently verify this data. As of last May, the company said it handles over 70% of all cross-chain messaging traffic in web3.

Bhaji Illuminati, CEO of Centrifuge Labs said in a statement, “For institutions, tokenization becomes strategic when products are built to move beyond a single venue or chain and enter markets with real distribution from day one.”

Centrifuge, whose CFG token rallied 60% this week on a Binance listing announcement, currently has a total of $1.33 billion in distributed asset value across its tokenized RWA products, per RWAxyz.

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Today’s move comes as tokenized RWAs on chain reached $18.4 billion at end of 2025, with RWA holders growing from 84,000 to 564,000 over the course of the year, per a report from Centrifuge — a trend The Defiant documented in depth as RWAs became Wall Street’s gateway to crypto last year.

This article was written with the assistance of AI workflows. All our stories are curated, edited and fact-checked by a human.

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Crypto World

Forward Industries Funds Share Buyback With Solana-Backed Loan

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Stocks, Loans, Solana

Forward Industries, a publicly traded company with a Solana-focused treasury strategy, has launched a share repurchase program funded through a crypto-backed loan from Galaxy Digital LLC, underscoring how digital assets are increasingly being used in traditional corporate finance.

The company said Thursday it will repurchase 6,164,324 shares of its common stock from an unnamed institutional investor for approximately $27.4 million, reducing total shares outstanding to 76,977,809.

Cointelegraph’s email to Forward seeking further information on the identity of the selling institutional investor was not answered prior to publication.

Stocks, Loans, Solana
A partial list of Forward Industries’ institutional investors. Source: Fintel.io

Public filings indicate that only six institutional investors in Forward Industries hold enough shares to sell that volume back to the company. According to filings data compiled by Fintel.io, one of those holders is Galaxy Digital LP (8.68 million shares, as of Sept. 18, 2025) and another is Galaxy Group Investments LLC (8.11 million shares, as of Feb. 18, 2026.)

To fund the buyback, Forward secured a $40 million loan from Galaxy Digital LLC at an interest rate of 3.4%. The loan is collateralized by the company’s Solana (SOL) holdings, which total 7,013,536 SOL — valued at approximately $613 million at current market prices.

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The structure allows Forward to access liquidity without liquidating its crypto reserves, while continuing to generate yield through staking. The move reflects a broader trend of companies leveraging digital asset treasuries to optimize capital structure and potentially enhance shareholder returns.

The share repurchase appears to be part of Forward Industries’ November authorization to buy back up to $1 billion of its stock on an ongoing basis. At the time, the company said the program would provide financial flexibility amid heightened volatility in the crypto market.

That volatility has intensified in recent months, with Solana’s price falling below $90. The buyback may also help support Forward Industries’ stock, which is down 87% from its September peak.

Forward Industries (FWDI) stock. Source: Yahoo Finance

Related: Crypto’s 2026 investment playbook: Bitcoin, stablecoin infrastructure, tokenized assets

Crypto treasury strategies face pressure

Forward Industries began aggressively accumulating Solana last year, when crypto treasury strategies gained traction during the bull market. The company has since built the largest publicly traded SOL treasury, with at least 18 other public companies adopting similar strategies, according to industry data.

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By February, these companies collectively held more than $1.5 billion in unrealized losses tied to the broader crypto market downturn. A significant portion of those losses is attributed to Forward Industries, which is down roughly $972 million.

Forward Industries ranks as the largest public holder of Solana. Source: CoinGecko

The sector’s volatility is likely to result in broad consolidation among crypto treasury companies, Wojciech Kaszycki of crypto infrastructure company BTCS told Cointelegraph.

Many treasury companies are under pressure as declining crypto prices push their valuations below the value of the digital assets they hold, while limited cash flow makes it harder to sustain operations.

Related: Crypto Biz: A Bitcoin treasury shareholder revolt