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Share classes and tokens

A pool reaches its investors through share classes and their tokens. This page covers how classes structure a product and what the token represents.

Share classes​

A pool contains one or more share classes. Each share class has its own token and can define distinct economic terms, pricing and investor permissions. A single product can serve different investor bases through different classes, for example a permissioned institutional class and a freely transferable class distributed through DeFi, both backed by the same pool.

The token: ownership layer​

Each share class is represented by a token, the ownership layer of the product:

  • It follows industry token standards, such as ERC-20, making it compatible with common wallets and custody infrastructure.
  • It is issued when an investor subscribes and burned when they redeem.
  • It carries the price per share of its class. How that price is set and evolves is covered in Pricing.
  • Depending on its transfer restrictions and available integrations, it can remain fully permissioned or be used across DeFi.

A token can be distributed to several networks while remaining one asset, with one supply and one price. See Vaults for how distribution works.