Bitfinex’s tokenized funds offer two return benchmarks
Crest Fund measures its performance in dollars and aims to exceed US Treasury bill yields. LBAF measures performance in Bitcoin, with a target of 8% to 12% net annualized returns, according to CMCC Global Managing Partner Martin Baumann.
CMCC Global co-founded the funds with Bitcoin analyst Willy Woo. Crest began operating in March 2022, while LBAF launched in April 2025.
Both spread capital across quantitative managers. Their approaches include funding-rate arbitrage, market making, and arbitrage between exchanges and DeFi.
“Both funds use diversified portfolios of quantitative, market-neutral strategies rather than relying principally on the directional performance of digital-asset markets,” Baumann said.
CMCC Global has described LBAF as a quantitative trading strategy designed to generate Bitcoin-denominated yield. Its return benchmark is Bitcoin, not dollars.
Token prices and six-month fee benefits
CREST tokens will have an issue price of $10 each, while LBAF tokens will cost 0.0001 BTC each. Investors can subscribe for a single token, provided they meet eligibility and verification requirements.
The tokenized funds offered through Bitfinex Securities include a six-month period after listing with performance fees reduced by 50% and redemption fees waived. Those benefits stay attached to tokens sold on the secondary market for the balance of that period.
Qualifying investors can also hold their tokens in approved wallets and trade them continuously, day or night, on the securities platform.
Hadron tokenization and the trustee structure
Hadron by Tether provides the tokenization technology, while BFXS (PTC) Limited holds the underlying participating shares as trustee. Each token represents an economic interest in those shares.
The funds operate as segregated portfolios within CMCC Global SPC in the Cayman Islands. Tokens are created against underlying shares and destroyed when redeemed; transfers require identity verification and anti-money-laundering checks.
Tether introduced Hadron in November 2024 to issue and manage tokenized assets such as stocks, bonds and funds. Its tools cover issuance, burning, compliance and management throughout a token’s lifecycle.
These new offerings join an existing roster featuring tokenized debt, Bitcoin hashrate contracts and US Treasury bills. The firm disclosed over $500 million in listed assets, alongside a completed $50 million raise for Alkemya Metacore, marking its biggest capital raise so far.
Article produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence and reviewed by the editorial team.
