Apex, Archax join Goldman Sachs’ GS DAP for tokenized fund

Apex Group will serve as fund manager for a tokenized real estate fund whose digital shares are being issued on Goldman Sachs’ Digital Asset Platform, GS DAP, the firms announced Thursday. The project was developed by Goldman Sachs with real estate manager LRC Group, custodian Archax and interoperability provider Ownera.

GS DAP, launched in 2022, runs on the privacy-focused Canton Network and uses Digital Asset’s DAML smart-contract language. The platform supports token creation, issuance, custody, settlement and transfers while using regulated firms for custody and distribution.

Agnes Mazurek, Apex’s global head of digital assets, described the firm’s participation as a response to growing demand from managers and investors for blockchain-native solutions: “Tokenization at institutional scale depends on trusted, regulated infrastructure.” Mathew McDermott, Goldman Sachs’ global head of digital assets and a Digital Asset board member, said issuing blockchain-native fund units on GS DAP “enables investment in real estate assets with precision while unlocking more seamless transferability in the future.”

LRC Group will manage the fund’s assets. Archax will act as custodian and the initial distribution partner, and Ownera will provide the interoperability layer that links issuers, custodians and distribution channels. The tokenized shares are intended to combine traditional fund governance and investor servicing with blockchain-based issuance and transferability.

Market participants have been moving real-world assets onto blockchains while keeping regulated oversight. The new real estate fund complements other institutional tokenization efforts such as tokenized money-market funds, private funds and collateral networks. Earlier this year, Apex worked with Coinbase to launch a tokenized Bitcoin yield fund on the Base blockchain.