Securitize Acquires $40B Crypto Fund Manager Onramp Invest

Securitize, a tokenization firm, announced its acquisition of Onramp Invest, a digital asset wealth platform designed for financial professionals.

Securitize’s product aims to increase liquidity and transparency by moving private investments to public blockchains such as Ethereum, Avalanche, Polygon, and Algorand.

Onramp serves a diverse range of Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) throughout the U.S. The platform manages more than $40 billion in assets and already collaborates with firms specializing in digital assets like WisdomTree, CoinDesk, Global X, and Valkyrie Invest to create crypto indexes.

The acquisition will let RIAs affiliated with Onramp Invest diversify their offerings. They’ll now have the capability to present their clients with alternative asset investment options, encompassing areas like private equity, private credit, secondaries, and real estate.

In a statement shared with Decrypt, Securitize CEO Carlos Domingo said that the acquisition constitutes a step forward in democratizing private capital markets.

“Onramp already offered RIAs easy access to digital assets, so it is a very natural extension to offer them tokenized alternative assets to complement their portfolios,” Domingo said.

The rise of tokenization

The acquisition underscores a rising trend of integrating traditional finance with digital asset solutions.

 The tokenization market is a large one, as it would potentially open the gates to all of finance to move over to the blockchain.  Last December, BlackRock’s CEO Larry Fink called the niche the “next generation for markets.” 

Eric Ervin, founder and CEO of Onramp Invest, added that Securitize offers lower minimums, lower fees, and the potential for exit liquidity through secondary markets. “Tokenization will be a major player in the investment space, and it’s imperative that all financial professionals are able to embrace this change,” he said.

In March, Securitize and Onramp announced a partnership that allowed RIA members to access private equity feeder funds offered by Securitize, in collaboration with investment leaders such as KKR and Hamilton Lane.

Onramp Invest’s acquisition confirms Securitize’s ambitions, a few weeks after having announced the issuance of tokenized securities in Europe.