CoinShares is expanding its cryptocurrency custody services beyond brokers.

Key Points

Qualified Safe customers can access stablecoin strategies managed by CoinShares.

CoinShares states that it does not hold customers’ assets.

Walletcontrol cannot eliminate the risks associated with investment or redemption.

CoinShares is transitioning the distribution of funds to a wallet-based model.

CoinShares has launched its OnChain Strategies service through Safe and Railnet.

CoinShares announced that its OnChain Strategies service is now available to qualified Safe enterprise customers. These customers can participate in managed stablecoin strategies that combine decentralized finance (DeFi) assets with tokenized real-world assets.

Traditional investment products typically reach investors through brokers, exchanges, advisors, or fund platforms. This new model starts with digital asset accounts: users with Safe wallets who hold stablecoins can allocate their funds to specific strategies, without needing to transfer funds to separate asset management companies or brokerage accounts.

This does not mean that wallets become risk-free savings accounts. It changes the starting point of investment relationships: wallets serve as an entry point, but returns and risks still depend on the assets used in the strategies and smart contracts.

Analysis of Roles Within the System

• Safe: Provides enterprise-level smart account environments, allowing qualified customers to access these strategies.
• CoinShares：设计策略，设定风险框架，并对委托给智能合约的资产收取费用。
• Railnet：提供支持策略分发和工作流的链上基础设施。
• 客户：决定是否从 Safe 账户分配稳定币资金。

客户需理解的关键事项

• Safe：钱包的控制权不等于资金一旦分配即可即时提取。
• CoinShares：明确表示不托管客户资产，也不将其自有资产负债表投入该项目。
• Railnet：该服务依赖于超出钱包界面之外的技术、结算及运营流程。
• 客户：保留账户所有权，同时接受策略的市场、交易对手方及流动性条款。

Safe 的推出是新的，但策略并非全新

CoinShares 早在今年三月就已宣布与 Railnet 合作推出链上策略。早期的计划结合了包括 DeFi 借贷、机构担保借贷、代币化债券基金及 ETF，以及 Delta 中性基差交易在内的多种收益来源。

十月的公告则是通过 Safe 进行的首次商业部署。从实际角度来看，CoinShares 正在测试该策略是否能够在机构和加密原生组织已经存放并批准数字资产的地方进行分发，而不仅仅局限于传统的投资产品渠道。

Safe indicates that its intelligent accounts manage assets worth over $60 billion across more than 63 million accounts. This includes approximately $7.5 billion in stablecoins. These figures represent the overall data of the platform, not the funds invested in CoinShares or the number of customers eligible for this strategy. Importantly, Safe already offers a large potential distribution footprint.

However, control over accounts does not eliminate investment risks.

CoinShares claims that customers retain ownership and control over their Safe accounts, and that it does not act as a custodian. This distinction is significant, as the manager does not hold customers’ assets in its own consolidated accounts, which is a traditional practice.

Nevertheless, customers’ actual exit from the strategy depends on the investment positions chosen by them. Capital allocated to lending agreements, tokenized funds, secured credit arrangements, or spread transactions may be subject to restrictions due to redemption windows, counterparty obligations, smart contract conditions, and market liquidity. CoinShares’ announcement states that redemptions are still subject to relevant liquidity and settlement mechanisms.

Thus, this structure distinguishes two often confused issues: who controls the wallet, and when investments can be quickly sold or redeemed. Even if customers have control over their accounts, they may still face delays or losses if the underlying strategies cannot be liquidated under favorable conditions.

Strategies combine various sources of returns.

Stablecoins provide an initial balance, but they are not the entire investment strategy. CoinShares’ approach may involve distributing investments across multiple markets, each with its own potential sources of returns and risks of failure:

• DeFi lending: The returns depend on borrowing demand, the quality of collateral, as well as the design and security measures of the protocols.
• Institutional-backed lending: The yield may be influenced by counterparty risk, collateral risk, and the availability of suitable borrowers.
• Tokenized bond funds and ETFs: Returns still depend on the underlying fixed-income markets and the terms of purchase, sale, or redemption of products.
• Delta-neutral spread strategies: These strategies aim to capture price differences between markets, but rely on hedge execution, financing conditions, and available liquidity.

This model uses stablecoins as deployable on-chain balances, thereby expanding the role of “on-chain dollars” from transactions and payments to portfolio allocation. For customers, it’s not just about the advertised returns; it’s about which specific sources of returns generate actual returns.

CoinShares is testing new distribution channels.

On a commercial level, the question is whether institutions want to integrate management strategies into the same environment they use for holding and approving digital assets. If so, asset management companies can reach customers without having to transfer custody responsibilities or become familiar with broker-dominated fund processes.

仅凭 Safe 的集成并不能保证这一结果。采用率将取决于策略表现、费用披露、客户资格、运营可靠性以及资金承诺前赎回条款是否清晰。

因此，CoinShares 的发布最好被理解为一次背后有真实产品支持的分布实验。该公司不仅仅是将基金上链，而是在测试钱包是否能成为机构资产管理的门户。

本文仅供参考，不构成投资、法律或税务建议。链上策略可能涉及市场、智能合约、交易对手方、流动性和运营风险。