• Libre’s investment infrastructure makes significant step in expanding access to alternative asset classes, which is now accessible on Solana
• Onboarding Hamilton Lane’s senior private credit fund will offer a broad range of investors access to the historically stable private markets strategy

Libre, a joint venture between WebN Group and Nomura’s Laser Digital, launches a next generation Web3 protocol on the Solana network for the issuance and distribution of funds. Alongside the launch, leading global private markets investment management firm, Hamilton Lane has worked to make its Senior Credit Opportunities Fund accessible on Libre¹. This partnership enables Solana’s users access to a number of on-chain funds, including SCOPE, as well as the Brevan Howard Master Fund and Blackrock ICS Money Market Fund.

Libre operates as backbone infrastructure, connecting Real World Assets (“RWAs”) such as private markets, other alternative assets and money market funds to users on public chains. Libre does this through the on-chain Libre Gateway DeFi dApp’s (decentralised applications) deployed on each public chain. This enables accredited, professional and institutional investors on networks like Solana to directly access top-tier funds on-chain in a fully compliant manner as well as ancillary services for secondary trading and collateralised lending, where available. The first cross-chain transactions took place on Solana through the MVP Libre Gateway.

Now accessible to Solana’s users through Libre, HL SCOPE Access Fund provides access to SCOPE, an all-weather senior private credit evergreen vehicle, which seeks to generate consistency of performance and cash yield through up and down markets. SCOPE offers investors access to a diversified, multi-manager portfolio with immediate capital deployment and the option for monthly liquidity.

Libre’s CEO and founder, Dr. Avtar Sehra, highlighted “The launch of the Libre Gateway on Solana is a huge step forward to enable access to wealth and treasury management tools for users on Solana, and for Libre to take advantage of the low latency and throughput capability of Solana to launch new and innovative services.”

Victor Jung, Head of Digital Assets at Hamilton Lane, said “As a leader in the tokenisation of private markets funds, we are delighted to partner with Libre,who is at the forefront of innovations in the fund distribution space, to reach a broader range of investors as they launch on Solana. This launch will expand access to the historical strong returns and performance opportunities generated within the private markets, while increasing efficiency and transparency for all investors.”

Nick Ducoff, Head of Institutional Growth at the Solana Foundation: “Libre’s launch on Solana democratizes access to high quality financial products with lower minimums to a global investor base.By leveraging the Solana blockchain’s high performance, speed, and security, Libre enables accredited investors to access a wide range of top-tier private funds directly onchain. This development underscores the transformative benefits of blockchain technology in broadening participation in financial markets.”

While the core focus of Libre is enabling access to private markets and alternative investments, such as the Hamilton Lane Scope Private Credit Fund, it also provides lowest cost access to a spectrum of well established money market funds, such as the BlackRock ICS USD Liquidity Fund, to ensure investors can park their money and have flexibility to come in and out of alternative markets when they choose. In addition, Libre also offers more crypto native funds, such as Laser Digital’s new Market Neutral Fund that is already oversubscribed prior to its September launch.

Libre brings together the institutional heritage and alternative investment expertise from WebN Group, an incubation hub for fintech and Web3 innovation, and Nomura’s digital assets arm, Laser Digital. Libre is also looking to enable a number of services to be made available to users on Solana through the Libre Gateway, which will be rolled out over 2024.

Other Quotes

Himanshu Panwar, CEO at WebN Group: “WebN Group is proud to back and contribute our expertise in blockchain technology and capital markets to the development of Libre. By providing a secure and efficient platform for the issuance and management of treasury management, Libre is poised to transform the traditional investment landscape.”

Dr. Jez Mohideen, CEO at Laser Digital: “Laser Digital is dedicated to delivering secure and compliant digital asset products and infrastructure for professional users. We firmly believe that Libre’s groundbreaking approach to tokenised funds holds the potential to greatly boost investor confidence and foster increased adoption of blockchain technology and tokenisation within the alternative investments industry and across broader capital markets.”

Source: Hamilton Lane