Hamilton Lane to tokenize 3 funds

Hamilton Lane, a private market investor with over $832 billion in assets under management, will tokenize parts of three funds in partnership with Securitize, a digital asset firm, the companies announced Wednesday.

Why it matters: Despite the dismal state of crypto markets, institutions are still experimenting with how blockchain technology can speed up the private markets and attract new investors.

Context: The announcement comes weeks after KKR made a similar move.

Details: Placing funds on the blockchain speeds up and simplifies the process of signing up for a fund, Hamilton Lane's chief risk officer, Fred Shaw, tells Axios.

• A blockchain platform can keep track of the investors' history and verify their identity. "It allows investors to have a persona that live on the blockchain," Shaw says. "It makes the reporting easier."
• Tokenizing the funds will also give eligible individual investors access, rather than just institutions

Of note: Hamilton Lane and KKR are not tokenizing the entirety of their funds because it's still early days for the technology and demand remains unclear.

Looking forward: Investors in Hamilton Lane's tokenized funds will not be able to sell for at least a year, while the company has not yet decided whether to allow active trading on Securitize after that period.