A major stride was made in Europe’s regulated investment market with the launch of blockchain-based payment infrastructure. Coinbase and Spiko have collaborated to enable stablecoin payments for UCITS-structured investment funds. Thanks to this new arrangement, investors can now purchase or redeem fund shares much faster, eliminating the need to wait for traditional bank transfers.
Stablecoins make inroads into UCITS funds
As part of the integration, Spiko’s EU Treasury Bill Money Market Fund and US Treasury Bill Money Market Fund now accept USDC and EURC stablecoins. These products have thus become among the first UCITS funds in Europe to offer stablecoin funding options. The new system particularly facilitates quicker transitions between regulated short-term public debt funds and digital assets for institutional investors.
Glossary: UCITS is a regulatory framework developed in the European Union to protect investors and ensure risk diversification in collective investment funds. This structure, which facilitates cross-border fund distribution, is widely used throughout Europe.
Investors can acquire fund units with USDC or EURC at any time, including weekends and public holidays, without waiting for regular bank working hours or settlement periods. According to company statements, when redeeming fund units, stablecoins can be transferred to wallets within minutes. This setup is expected to minimize the period during which capital remains idle during transaction processing.
Coinbase and Spiko emphasized that regulated financial products can operate in harmony with digital assets while maintaining full compliance with legal frameworks.
Base network and payment infrastructure highlighted
The payment infrastructure operates through Coinbase Payments, with transactions finalized on Coinbase’s Ethereum layer-2 network, Base. In addition, Coinbase provides both the required wallet infrastructure and payment tools needed for the process. The companies underlined that this model ensures the security and compliance standards that regulated financial markets expect remain intact.
Glossary: Base is a layer-2 Ethereum network developed by Coinbase. Networks of this kind are built to process transactions more quickly and at a lower cost than the main chain.
UCITS funds are among the most heavily regulated investment products in Europe and are widely used by both retail and institutional investors. Bringing stablecoin payments into this framework is being viewed as a significant step in connecting traditional finance and blockchain infrastructure.
Rising institutional interest
The move aims to resolve one of the biggest inefficiencies in traditional markets: slow settlement times. Investors’ ability to access their funds without waiting for standard trading cycles may improve cash management and reduce idle capital.
Citing a study by EY Parthenon, Coinbase highlighted that 88% of institutional investors see same-day, T+0 securities settlement as one of stablecoins’ main use cases.
The announcement comes at a time when institutional interest in blockchain-based settlements is rising. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has also renewed his call to reform accredited investor rules in the US, arguing that the current system creates opportunities reserved solely for wealthy investors.
Meanwhile, a partnership established between global digital payments firm Checkout and Coinbase is expanding stablecoin acceptance for institutional clients. These developments further indicate the tightening link between traditional payment channels and blockchain-based settlement systems.
