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Spiko and Coinbase Let Investors Enter and Exit EU Fund Products With Stablecoins
15 Aug 2026, 19:03
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Paris-based asset manager Spiko partnered with Coinbase to let investors move in and out of its regulated UCITS money-market funds using stablecoins, cutting settlement times from days to near-instant.
Paris-based asset manager Spiko has partnered with Coinbase to let investors enter and exit its regulated mutual funds using stablecoins, a move the companies describe as a landmark first for Europe. The new infrastructure allows investors to move between stablecoins and short-dated government debt around the clock, replacing the conventional bank transfers and multi-day settlement cycles that have typically governed access to these products. Both of Circle's stablecoins, Euro Coin and USD Coin, are accepted as payment under the new system.
The funds involved are UCITS products, the European Union's most heavily regulated retail fund standard, carrying strict oversight and investor protections. Spiko's EU T-Bills Money Market Fund currently holds roughly €826 million, while its US T-Bills Money Market Fund holds $168 million; both invest in short-maturity sovereign treasury bills and, according to Spiko, were already the first UCITS vehicles in the EU to run a fully tokenized share registry before this integration. The funds are managed by Twenty First Capital, with Crédit Agricole subsidiary CACEIS serving as custodian and PwC as auditor, and the new stablecoin payment rail runs on Coinbase Payments, settling on Base, Coinbase's layer-2 blockchain.
The integration targets a structural bottleneck in European markets: most securities there still settle two business days after a trade, leaving capital in transit and forcing funds to bridge short-term liquidity gaps. UCITS funds face additional constraints in managing that gap, limited to borrowing no more than 10% of net asset value and restricted in how much cash they can hold on deposit. The mismatch has grown more pronounced since the US moved to a one-day settlement cycle in 2024, a gap the European Fund and Asset Management Association has flagged as a growing strain on asset managers operating across both markets.
Coinbase framed the move as addressing genuine institutional demand rather than a speculative crypto play. A Coinbase-commissioned study conducted with EY-Parthenon in March found that 88% of institutional investors cited same-day securities settlement as a primary reason for interest in stablecoins, while 86% of respondents said they already use stablecoins or plan to, mostly for internal cash management rather than trading. Océane Codija, Coinbase's head of EMEA go-to-market for stablecoin payments, said the goal is for "crypto" to function as "plumbing for institutions to modernise payments, settlement and treasury management" rather than remain a standalone asset class.
Not everyone is convinced the shift toward round-the-clock settlement is unambiguously positive. The European Central Bank cautioned in an April report that tokenized money-market funds can wrap the familiar run and liquidity risks of ordinary funds in new technology, and some European finance executives have publicly questioned whether extended trading hours actually improve market function. Spiko has not yet detailed the specific liquidity mechanism underpinning redemptions outside normal treasury-bill settlement windows, including whether a stablecoin buffer is held against the funds' net asset value to meet redemption requests, leaving an open question about how the system performs under stress even as it promises faster access under normal conditions.
The funds involved are UCITS products, the European Union's most heavily regulated retail fund standard, carrying strict oversight and investor protections. Spiko's EU T-Bills Money Market Fund currently holds roughly €826 million, while its US T-Bills Money Market Fund holds $168 million; both invest in short-maturity sovereign treasury bills and, according to Spiko, were already the first UCITS vehicles in the EU to run a fully tokenized share registry before this integration. The funds are managed by Twenty First Capital, with Crédit Agricole subsidiary CACEIS serving as custodian and PwC as auditor, and the new stablecoin payment rail runs on Coinbase Payments, settling on Base, Coinbase's layer-2 blockchain.
The integration targets a structural bottleneck in European markets: most securities there still settle two business days after a trade, leaving capital in transit and forcing funds to bridge short-term liquidity gaps. UCITS funds face additional constraints in managing that gap, limited to borrowing no more than 10% of net asset value and restricted in how much cash they can hold on deposit. The mismatch has grown more pronounced since the US moved to a one-day settlement cycle in 2024, a gap the European Fund and Asset Management Association has flagged as a growing strain on asset managers operating across both markets.
Coinbase framed the move as addressing genuine institutional demand rather than a speculative crypto play. A Coinbase-commissioned study conducted with EY-Parthenon in March found that 88% of institutional investors cited same-day securities settlement as a primary reason for interest in stablecoins, while 86% of respondents said they already use stablecoins or plan to, mostly for internal cash management rather than trading. Océane Codija, Coinbase's head of EMEA go-to-market for stablecoin payments, said the goal is for "crypto" to function as "plumbing for institutions to modernise payments, settlement and treasury management" rather than remain a standalone asset class.
Not everyone is convinced the shift toward round-the-clock settlement is unambiguously positive. The European Central Bank cautioned in an April report that tokenized money-market funds can wrap the familiar run and liquidity risks of ordinary funds in new technology, and some European finance executives have publicly questioned whether extended trading hours actually improve market function. Spiko has not yet detailed the specific liquidity mechanism underpinning redemptions outside normal treasury-bill settlement windows, including whether a stablecoin buffer is held against the funds' net asset value to meet redemption requests, leaving an open question about how the system performs under stress even as it promises faster access under normal conditions.