Key Takeaways
- Hamilton Lane is deploying its Senior Credit Opportunities Fund on Ethereum and Optimism.
- Wormhole equips SCOPE with cross-chain functionality.
- As Asset managers embrace tokenization, they are increasingly turning to multichain solutions.
Hamilton Lane made its first major move into tokenized real-world assets with the launch of a feeder fund for its Senior Credit Opportunities (SCOPE) fund on Polygon in 2023.
Now, SCOPE has gone multichain, with the launch of multichain functionality on Ethereum and Optimism, powered by Wormhole.
SCOPE Goes Multichain
First launched in 2022, SCOPE is a private credit fund with a minimum investment of $2 million. However, Hamilton Lane has sought to lower the barrier to investment with more accessible tokenized offerings.
SCOPE’s tokenized sub-fund is issued via Securitize and has a much lower minimum investment. As of July 18, it had over $9.6 million in assets under management.
As part of Thursday’s multichain upgrade, Hamilton Lane has issued a new cross-chain token (sSCOPE) powered by the Wormhole blockchain interoperability protocol.
“By enabling the transfer of SCOPE across blockchain networks, Wormhole allows Hamilton Lane to meet capital where it lives,” commented Wormhole Foundation Co-Founder Robinson Burkey.
Enhancing Cross-Chain Liquidity
Hamilton Lane isn’t the first asset manager to turn to Wormhole for multichain interoperability.
Other tokenized funds issued via Securitize also deploy the technology, including BlackRock’s BUIDL and Apollo’s ACRED.
“We’re seeing a clear trend: the largest asset managers are not only tokenizing funds, they’re demanding infrastructure that lets those assets flow freely across chains,” Securitize Chief Operating Officer Michael Sonnenshein remarked in a statement shared with CCN.
By bridging otherwise siloed ecosystems, Wormhole provides SCOPE with a more unified liquidity pool.
This enhances market depth for investors. It also lets them easily move tokens from one chain to another, letting them take maximum advantage of emerging opportunities to deploy tokenized assets as collateral.
Wormhole vs. Chainlink for Multichain Tokenized Assets
While Wormhole has emerged as the leading interoperability protocol for tokenized funds thanks to its ongoing partnership with Securitize, Chainlink’s rival Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) isn’t far behind.
In 2024, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) and Wall Street giants, including JP Morgan and Franklin Templeton, successfully piloted the use of CCIP to disseminate tokenized fund data across any blockchain.
Where multichain tokenization goes from here may depend on whether Securitize can maintain its close relationship with major asset managers.
Firms like BlackRock and Hamilton Lane have only tokenized a small fraction of their portfolio so far. As they look to adopt the technology more generally, there is no guarantee they will stick with their current technology stack.
