Tokenized Funds & Treasuries (Asset Managers)

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission introduced a provisional, conditional exemption allowing certain tokenized U.S.-listed equities to trade on-chain under specified conditions, while S&P Global agreed to acquire OpenZeppelin, a firm specializing in smart contract security infrastructure. The SEC measure, set out in a "Statement on Innovation Exemptions" signed by Commissioner Mark T. Ueda, guarantees holders of equity tokens the same rights as holders of conventional shares and requires third parties to notify the issuer of the underlying stock in writing before dealing in tokenized shares. According to S&P Global, OpenZeppelin's technology has supported the transfer of more than $37 trillion in value cumulatively, including major stablecoins and tokenized funds. Following these announcements, the market capitalization of DeFi-related tokens rose about $7 billion on Friday, climbing 8.8% to $79.8 billion, while the total market capitalization of the broader crypto market rose 4% to $2.7 trillion. Hyperliquid's HYPE jumped 10.8% to an all-time high of about $90.46, giving it a market capitalization of $20.12 billion; Uniswap's UNI rose 29.1% over 24 hours to about $9.00, for a market capitalization of $5.59 billion; and Aave's AAVE gained 9.5% to about $135.28. Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan said the SEC is trying to put in place as much of a crypto regulatory framework as it can under its existing authority, and described tokenization as a massive tide.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has cleared a path for tokenized US stocks, bringing the market closer to 24/7 trading under a five-year innovation exemption that lets eligible platforms trade tokenized US equities through blockchain-based liquidity pools. No platform has been individually approved, and the framework is not yet operational, though trading could start as soon as 30 days out. The exemption covers secondary trading only, not IPOs or issuance of new shares, and tokens must be tied to existing publicly traded equities rather than price trackers, with holders receiving the same economic interest, dividends, voting rights, liquidation rights and shareholder communications as conventional shareholders. Issuing companies get a veto: if an unaffiliated third party such as an exchange wants to tokenize a company's stock, the company receives 30 days to object. Smart contracts must be public and auditable on a public permissionless blockchain, not walled-garden private chains, while traders and wallets are verified and whitelisted for sanctions and AML compliance, and tokenized stocks can trade in crypto-style pairs, including tokenized stock against tokenized stock, a permitted stablecoin, another non-security crypto asset, or tokenized money market funds. The deliberately small pilot has multiple tiers: for the largest Tier one stocks each venue is limited to 75 symbols and 0.25% of each stock's prior month average daily volume, Tier two allows 250 symbols and 2.5% of volume, and repeatedly exceeding a limit triggers a three-month trading pause in that stock. Around-the-clock trading and self-custody are possible but not guaranteed and will be up to the exchange, and the relief exempts only two narrow requirements: venues from registering as conventional exchanges, and qualifying AMM liquidity providers from dealer registration and anti-fraud and market manipulation rules.

WisdomTree and MoonPay announced a strategic partnership on September 17 aimed at expanding access to tokenized funds in the United States and supporting the management of stablecoin reserves. At the center is the tokenized money market fund WisdomTree Treasury Money Market Digital Fund, or WTGXX. WisdomTree will build an acquisition channel using MoonPay's technology and infrastructure, extending distribution from its own channel through its securities subsidiary to MoonPay, which has more than 35 million accounts. Eligible U.S. investors will be able to put money into the tokenized money market fund through infrastructure they already use, and for MoonPay, WTGXX becomes a means of managing reserves within a regulated and highly transparent structure. According to RWA.xyz, the tokenized U.S. Treasury fund market stood at 15.4 billion dollars as of September 17, shrinking about 4.9% over 30 days, and within that market WTGXX ranked fifth by ticker at 1.23 billion dollars, with net inflows of 466 million dollars over the most recent 30 days.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said the company's newly launched tokenized equities have already generated almost a billion dollars in trading volume just weeks after debut. In an interview with Scott Melker on "The Daily Wolf with Scott Melker," Armstrong said Coinbase built the tokenized shares as real securities that can be redeemed one to one for the underlying share and carry shareholder rights including dividend upside and voting, unlike the derivative, synthetic or debt-instrument versions he said he has seen elsewhere. He argued tokenized equities let users trade shares 24/7, send them anywhere in the world and tap a unified global liquidity pool, serving the roughly four billion people he said lack access to any brokerage. Armstrong said Coinbase began with stablecoins, a one-to-one backed digital token for a dollar, and now intends to tokenize everything, including private companies, treasuries and asset management funds, to make investments fast, cheap and globally distributed while reducing settlement risk. He added that the current SEC is very interested in bringing the idea to the US.

BlackRock is increasingly positioning itself as one of the largest Ethereum holding firms as recent data shows that it is rapidly expanding its Ethereum holdings. The asset manager's Ethereum position now stands at $1.5 billion, according to the report. The move underscores BlackRock's continued buildout of digital-asset exposure beyond its spot Bitcoin products.

Oasis Pro Markets, the U.S. subsidiary of Ondo Finance and an SEC-registered broker-dealer, has become the first tokenization company to join Fund/SERV, the mutual fund transaction processing platform operated by DTCC, the largest U.S. securities depository. DTCC announced the move on the 16th. DTCC is the financial infrastructure institution responsible for securities custody and settlement in the United States, and Fund/SERV is the system that handles mutual fund trading and cash settlement, processing more than 85% of all U.S. mutual fund transactions. With its membership, Oasis Pro Markets can now transact with mutual fund companies, asset management platforms, and various service providers without building individual connections to each, and has put in place a framework to handle account information management, trade confirmations, and tax and regulatory reporting all in one place. Talia Klein, who heads DTCC's Wealth and Investment Solutions division, said interoperability between traditional financial infrastructure and the cryptocurrency ecosystem is becoming essential to achieving scale and broader market adoption, and described Ondo's participation as an example that will help drive fund technology innovation with industry standards, scalability, and operational robustness. Ian De Bode, interim chief executive officer and president of Ondo Finance, said the company can now transact with mutual fund companies, asset management platforms, and various service providers through a single standardized connection without individual integrations, and expressed the view that the foundational infrastructure for tokenized mutual funds to reach mainstream adoption is now in place.

Circle has launched the public mainnet of Arc, a Layer 1 blockchain built for payments, trading and agentic economic activity, with BlackRock, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, ICE, Mastercard, MoneyGram, SBI Group, Standard Chartered, Sumitomo, Visa, Worldpay and Galaxy forming its founding cohort of validators. Chief executive Jeremy Allaire called it the single most significant launch in Circle's history since USDC itself, and the USDC stablecoin, with around $74 billion in circulation, serves as the chain's gas token. Circle completed the genesis mint of ARC this week, creating all 10 billion tokens and making it the first publicly traded company to mint a network token for a new Layer 1, though the company said the mint is not a commitment to publicly launch ARC and described it as a technical step toward a possible move from proof of authority to proof of stake in 2027. Circle had already raised $222 million in an Arc token presale at a $3 billion valuation. Banks with access include BNY, HSBC, Societe Generale and State Street, while Aave and Morpho anchor lending, Uniswap, Aero and fomo provide trading, and Binance, Kraken, Bybit and OKX offer routes in, with Coinbase to follow; BlackRock's BUIDL and Circle's USYC provide tokenized collateral. Circle said USDC accounts for 98.8% of agent-driven transaction volume, citing Dune, and that Arc's testnet, launched last year with BlackRock and Visa among the participants, processed more than 700 million transactions in under a year.

Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin has reached approximately $2.345 billion in market cap as of September 16, 2026, a 1,278% year-to-date increase that makes it the third-fastest growing stablecoin of the year, with daily transfer activity tripling since January to $750 million per day by August. Roughly $963 million of the token sits on the XRP Ledger and $1.05 billion on Ethereum. Ripple is pursuing a vertically integrated strategy built on acquisitions rather than validators, including the $1.25 billion purchase of Hidden Road, now rebranded Ripple Prime, which clears roughly $3 trillion annually and lets RLUSD serve as collateral with zero haircut for over 300 institutional clients, alongside the $1 billion acquisition of GTreasury's treasury management platform, which reaches 1,200 corporate treasurers processing $13 trillion annually. Integrations include a September 2025 partnership with DBS and Franklin Templeton for 24/7 trading of tokenized money market funds, a Securitize link allowing holders of BlackRock BUIDL and VanEck VBILL to swap into RLUSD around the clock, and a Mastercard and WebBank pilot marking the first time a regulated US bank has settled card transactions on a public blockchain using a stablecoin. Ripple holds a New York Department of Financial Services trust company charter and conditional OCC approval, and launched in Japan via SBI under the JFSA's revised Payment Services Act, positioning itself around private-sector consensus and state-level charters after the CLARITY Act failed on September 15. The Federal Reserve Master Account remains the key bottleneck, and expansion into L2 networks via Wormhole NTT is still pending NYDFS approval.

MTS GOLD group, also known as Mae Thong Suk, announced the successful offering of the MTS Gold Investment Token, the first digital token for investment in the gold trading business in Thailand, in partnership with Cubic Digital Asset Co., Ltd., or kubix, a digital token offering system provider, along with seven partner companies. Natthapong Hiranyasiri, Chief Executive Officer of Mae Thong Suk Central Co., Ltd., said the funds raised will be used in line with the project's objectives, with no less than 90% to invest in the purchase of 96.5% gold bars as inventory for the gold bar trading business through 13 branches of Mae Thong Suk gold shops in Bangkok and its vicinity, and no more than 10% as working capital in the business. Investors will receive a fixed return of 3.00% per year, paid once a year, throughout the three-year project term, along with the opportunity to receive an additional special bonus return at maturity from gains on the gold price difference, and will receive their initial investment back in full. Assawinee Srisomboonnanon, Managing Director of Cubic Digital Asset Co., Ltd., said this project reflects confidence in the MTS GOLD group and is an example of expanding access to quality assets for a wider range of investors. The token requires the issuer to maintain liquid current assets with a value of no less than the funds raised throughout the project term, with monthly audits by kubix throughout the project.

Simon Gerovich, CEO of Metaplanet, said in a post on X on September 6 that the company is continuing to review its compensation and governance policies, and, in response to questions and criticism from shareholders, he again explained the intent behind management decisions and the company's efforts toward long-term shareholder value. One of the points of debate over the compensation system is the dilution of shares through the 10th stock acquisition rights for officers and employees. The circulation of the Japanese yen stablecoin JPYC continues to decline, and according to the on-chain data aggregation site JPYC Info, it fell from about 2.708 billion JPYC on August 30 to about 2.097 billion JPYC on September 6, a decrease of about 600 million yen in value over one week. Asset Management One, an asset management company under the Mizuho group, has hired analyst Yoshifumi Nishiyama with an eye toward crypto asset ETFs, and he announced his joining the company on his social media on September 7. The National Sheriffs' Association, a U.S. law enforcement organization, said in a letter on September 3 that it was withdrawing its opposition to the Clarity Act, which defines the market structure for crypto assets, and shifting to a neutral stance. On September 11, the Financial Services Agency issued a warning to Bit Hills, which operates the crypto asset collateralized loan CryptoPawn, saying it was conducting a money lending business without registration.

The Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, is pressing ahead with driving Thailand's investment market by promoting the Thai Individual Savings Account project, or TISA, together with the Ministry of Finance, the Thai Capital Market Business Council, and the Stock Exchange of Thailand, to serve as the country's savings infrastructure, aiming to turn people's savings into long-term investment and broaden the base of new investors. SEC Secretary-General Pornanong Budsaratragoon said the SEC has also adjusted the process for approving initial public offering share sales under the Streamline IPO Process guidelines, placing greater weight on disclosure in order to cut the review period to 60-100 days from an average of 147 days previously, a reduction of roughly 30-60%. At the same time, the SEC, together with the Stock Exchange of Thailand, is pushing the BOI to IPO project and setting up a special channel for companies promoted by the Board of Investment and the Eastern Economic Corridor, in order to draw new-economy businesses into the Thai capital market. On the digital capital market, the SEC is promoting the tokenization of securities, with rules for tokenized fund units having taken effect since April 1, 2026. As for anti-money laundering risk measures, the Travel Rule regulations will take effect from February 27, 2027. On investment scams, the SEC can act to intercept them within 7 minutes to 48 hours and block reported accounts completely, at 100%. Statistics in 2026 show that consultations about investment scams rose as much as threefold compared with the same period a year earlier. On law enforcement, data as of August 2026 shows that the longest case age fell from 8 years to 3.6 years, while the average case age dropped from 2.3 years to 1.5 years. Currently, a total of five sets of laws are in the process of being revised.

On September 16, Circle's Arc mainnet goes live with a validator cohort including BlackRock, DTCC, Mastercard, and Visa, even as the CLARITY Act faces a likely Senate cloture failure the day before. The Layer-1 blockchain features native USDC gas and sub-second finality, with BlackRock expected to deploy its $3.2 billion BUIDL fund and DTCC planning to tokenize assets from its $114 trillion custody portfolio starting in 2027. The CLARITY Act, which needs 60 votes but has only 53 Republican seats and expected defections, has Polymarket odds for 2026 passage at 15%, down from 90% in February. Institutions are instead aligning with the GENIUS Act's January 18, 2027 enforcement date and agency rules from the OCC and SEC, signaling a pivot to infrastructure-led compliance. This move reflects a capital-allocation decision by institutions that read NPRMs, not Polymarket.

The Stellar Development Foundation announced on September 8 that the Stellar blockchain ranks first among all blockchains in the balance of assets tokenizing non-US government debt. According to RWA.xyz, as of August 20, non-US government debt on Stellar reached approximately $490 million (about ¥78.4 billion), maintaining the top position since surpassing Ethereum in early February. On Stellar, tokenized assets include Mexico's short-term government bonds CETES, Brazilian government bonds, South Korean government bonds, and the Marshall Islands' digital government bonds, as well as a eurozone short-term government bond fund. Meanwhile, Ethereum leads in tokenized US Treasuries, with a balance of approximately $15.86 billion (about ¥2.5376 trillion) as of September 8. The SDF explained that Stellar's management features supporting identity verification and transaction restrictions, along with its design suited for international remittances and multi-currency payments, are behind its adoption.

Hanwha Investment & Securities, a subsidiary of the Hanwha Group, one of South Korea's top five conglomerates, is building a tokenization platform to handle traditional assets such as stocks and bonds on the blockchain. Avalanche revealed this on September 7 via its official X account. Hanwha Investment & Securities aims to use the network as a bridge connecting institutional finance and blockchain, bringing traditional assets into the global on-chain market. South Korea is also advancing its regulatory framework for token securities. On September 4, the Financial Services Commission published a roadmap to gradually tokenize existing securities. The related amendments are scheduled to take effect on February 4, 2027, with the first phase focusing on tokenizing private placement money market funds and bonds for institutional investors, as well as unlisted stocks through trusts.

Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) announced on September 7 the launch of an investment product tokenizing a silver bar weighing 1,971 kilograms, which has been certified by Guinness World Records. Based on Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo's silver price, the bar is worth approximately 735 million yen. Traditionally, such an investment required substantial capital, but by fractionalizing ownership of the physical bar and selling it as digital tokens, individual investors can now participate more easily. The issuance and sale are handled by Tokinvest, which operates under the regulation of Dubai's Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA), and the blockchain used is BNB Chain. This is the first product under the commodity tokenization framework being developed by DMCC and VARA. The physical silver bar is registered and verified through DMCC's system and stored by a specialized custodian. A secondary market for the purchased tokens is also planned to launch after meeting regulatory requirements. The silver bar has a purity of 99.9% and its weight commemorates the year 1971, the year of the UAE's founding.

BlackRock has reduced the minimum size for converting large Bitcoin holdings directly into shares of its iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF to $1 million, down from $25 million when the in-kind conversion process first became available, according to a Bloomberg report. The fund has facilitated more than $5 billion of these conversions, up from more than $3 billion in October, said Robbie Mitchnick, BlackRock's head of digital assets. The process, which can take more than a week, lets holders move Bitcoin from private wallets into a regulated fund structure while retaining price exposure, with Mitchnick citing "kidnappings, ransom demands, and custody failures" as motivations. Rival issuer Bitwise has cut its own minimum even further, from $100 million to $3 million. BlackRock's IBIT holds roughly 3.645% of Bitcoin's total supply and lists net assets of $60.65 billion.

SCG JWD Logistics, or SJWD, together with Krungthai Bank, is preparing to offer SJWD digital bonds with a term of 3 years and 6 months, carrying a fixed interest rate of approximately 2.95–3.20% per annum, with interest paid every 3 months, through the bond trading wallet on the Pao Tang app. The subscription period is expected to be from September 18 to 22, 2026, with a minimum investment of 1,000 baht and a maximum of 50 million baht per transaction. These bonds have been rated BBB+(tha) by Fitch Ratings (Thailand). The proceeds will be used to repay existing debt by September 2026. Krungthai Bank stated that this collaboration helps increase investment options and supports comprehensive access to investment products through digital channels.

On September 4, the South Korean Financial Services Commission announced a policy to gradually tokenize stocks, bonds, and funds. In line with the enforcement of related laws in February 2027, it will introduce tokenization for limited products, with the aim of achieving on-chain settlement using stablecoins in the future. In the first phase, private money market funds (MMFs) and private bonds for institutional investors will be targeted, and unlisted stocks will be digitized through a trust method. Public offering-type small-sum investment securities will also be available from the same period. Securities firms will need to establish the distributed ledger required for issuance and connect it to the Korea Securities Depository's system. Since migrating all functions of existing electronic securities at once would impose a heavy development burden and operational risks, the scope will be expanded gradually. In the second phase, the target will be expanded to public offering securities, and in the third phase, stablecoins will be incorporated as a payment method, with the aim of completing transactions and fund settlement entirely on the blockchain. However, the start timing for the second and subsequent phases has not been decided, and will be determined based on the stability and efficiency of initial operations, private sector technology development, and progress in legislation regarding stablecoins. Tokenized stock handling is becoming more active globally, and as of September 3, the number of holding addresses reached a record high of approximately 2.6 million. The commission plans to link securities issuance, trading, clearing, settlement, and exercise of rights within a "digital capital market" framework, and plans to issue legislative notices for subordinate rules of the Capital Markets Act and the Electronic Securities Act by the end of September, followed by a public comment period.

Securitize, a US real-world asset tokenization firm, and Socios.com, a sports fan token platform, announced on the 2nd that they have entered into a strategic partnership to tokenize and offer minority equity stakes in professional sports teams in a compliant manner. Under the 'Socios Equity Token' brand, the two companies plan to collaborate with sports teams, existing owners, and institutional investors to tokenize equity in accordance with securities laws, league requirements, club approvals, and jurisdictional constraints. Securitize will handle securities issuance, investor participation, and ownership record management, while Socios.com will lead engagement with the sports industry and the development of fan-facing participation layers. As background, the total value of global professional sports franchises is estimated at approximately $500 billion, yet most ownership is private, making access to minority equity stakes difficult. The digital assets aim to bring a portion of that value on-chain, enhancing distribution and price discovery. The specific teams, transaction terms, and blockchain used will be announced upon individual approvals, and these will be separate products from existing fan tokens.

Cryptocurrency exchange Bitget has been in discussions with major Wall Street financial institutions, including BlackRock, regarding the expansion of its digital asset business in Asia. Bitget CEO Gracy Chen revealed this in an interview with CoinDesk, stating that the company is in close communication with BlackRock about distribution in the Asian market. BlackRock is seeking to expand the distribution of tokenized ETFs and other products in Asia, and a spokesperson noted that crypto ETPs are already offered in Asia but declined to comment on specific expansion plans. According to the OECD, blockchain-based cryptocurrency trading in Asia increased by 69% year-over-year in the 12 months through June 2025, the highest growth rate of any region. Bitget has 125 million registered users worldwide, with about half concentrated in East and Southeast Asia. The company's research shows that 52% of respondents hold both cryptocurrencies and stocks, and this customer base could become a new sales channel for major asset managers.

Federated Hermes has formed a strategic alliance with Singapore-based Conduit Digital Holdings to establish a regulated tokenized fund structure in the Asia-Pacific region, marking its first digital-assets initiative there. Under the agreement, a Conduit-managed fund will invest in Federated Hermes' Short-Term U.S. Prime Fund, with its shares tokenized for institutional and wholesale investors. This move builds on Federated Hermes' APAC presence since 2010, including offices in Singapore, Tokyo, and Sydney, and a planned Hong Kong office. The company's money market assets reached $676.9 billion as of June 30, 2026, up 7% year over year, and accounted for nearly 74.2% of total AUM. Federated Hermes has previously launched tokenized money market initiatives in the U.S. and with UK-based Archax, and peers like Franklin Templeton and BlackRock are also expanding in tokenized finance. The alliance is seen as a strategic step rather than an immediate earnings catalyst, with adoption and regulatory developments determining its impact.

Capital markets are converging on a single investable thesis for tokenized finance, driven by the integration of issuer, settlement, and liquidity layers. On July 2, 2026, Securitize Corp. listed on the NYSE via a SPAC merger, tokenizing its own stock on Avalanche and Solana, marking a milestone in onchain equities. The settlement layer is advancing with the DTCC targeting an October 2026 commercial launch for its tokenization service, covering U.S. Treasuries and Russell 1000 stocks, while NYLIM's tokenized US High Yield Bond Fund uses RedStone Settle for T+0 exits in about 300 milliseconds. In June 2026, a consortium including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo announced a shared tokenized deposit network via The Clearing House, targeting a first-half 2027 launch to counter the roughly $263 billion in stablecoins. The January 18, 2027, GENIUS Act compliance deadline, with Treasury's August 2026 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, is accelerating this convergence, though liquidity remains the binding constraint as forecasts for onchain RWA value range from $4 trillion to $30 trillion by the early 2030s.

BlackRock's iShares Ethereum Trust ETF has attracted approximately $1.02 billion in net inflows over nine consecutive U.S. trading sessions between August 17 and August 27, according to SoSoValue data.

Sansiri's digital bonds have continued to succeed, with investors subscribing to the full amount of 1 billion baht, closing the sale in just 67 seconds through Krungthai Bank's Pao Tang application. Mr. Wichan Wiriyaphusit, Chief Financial Officer of Sansiri, said that this success reflects confidence in the brand and the company's strong performance, and thanked investors and Krungthai Bank for making investment access easier, starting from just 1,000 baht. Mr. Ravin Boonyanusas, Head of Money Market and Capital Market Business at Krungthai Bank, said that this success underscores the potential of the Pao Tang app as a digital investment channel that helps people access investment products conveniently, comprehensively, and equally, with investors able to trade bonds in real-time 24 hours a day.

Tradeweb, Virtu Financial, and M1X Global have executed the first fully onchain repo transaction on the Canton Network, settling a bilateral deal involving the USDM1 sovereign digital bond issued by the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The transaction, completed in under ten minutes, settled securities delivery, cash, and return atomically, reducing settlement exposure and eliminating intraday balance-sheet inflation. USDM1 is classified as a UCC Article 8 investment security, allowing it to fit within existing ISDA and GMRA close-out netting sets, with custody provided by Anchorage, BitGo, and tZERO. This move is part of a broader shift, with Broadridge scaling its onchain U.S. Treasury repo financing on Canton from $2 trillion to over $4 trillion in monthly volume, and the DTCC's tokenization service set for a full launch in October 2026 with over 50 firms. M1X Global CEO Mark Lurie emphasized the focus on institutional-grade margin and collateral management, and with Tradeweb reporting $194.2 trillion in total trading volume in Q2 2026, even a small migration to onchain repo could significantly impact capital efficiency.

Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan warns that the traditional 60/40 portfolio is 100% exposed to fiat currency, as investors poured a record $7 billion into gold and Bitcoin funds in just five days. Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas calls this the debasement trade, a bet on assets no government can print, which has now stolen the spotlight from AI funds. SPDR Gold Shares took in $3.4 billion in the week through August 21, while BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust added over $1 billion, and the VanEck Semiconductor ETF bled $1.7 billion. The trigger is Washington's debt crossing $40 trillion and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's decision to double long-bond buybacks to at least $4 billion per operation starting September 9. Central banks have already shifted, with gold reaching 27% of their reserves, overtaking US Treasuries at 22%. Bitcoin trades near $79,144, up 0.55% in 24 hours, while IBIT is still down roughly 10% this year after nursing a 33% loss as recently as June.

A study by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the Bank for International Settlements, and the European Central Bank found that tokenized bonds reduce issuance costs and increase liquidity compared to traditional bonds. In 2025, global issuance of tokenized bonds totaled approximately 4.71 billion euros, accounting for about 0.02% of traditional bond issuance, but with a trend of continued growth. The study found that distribution fees decreased by an average of 0.22 percentage points, or 25.8%, and the distribution spread was lower by 0.05 percentage points. Meanwhile, borrowing costs decreased by 0.78 percentage points, and the bid-ask spread narrowed by up to 0.11 percentage points. However, the sample remains limited and the market is not yet fully developed. For Thailand, the Securities and Exchange Commission is preparing regulations to support electronic securities to elevate the capital market towards digitalization.

India is preparing to test its first tokenized bond in September, using wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) for settlement, marking a significant move by the country to adopt blockchain technology in financial markets. The test will be conducted by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in collaboration with REC Limited and will use the platform of SEBI, India's securities market regulator. The tokenized bond will be issued and traded entirely in digital form, representing a major step in modernizing India's financial infrastructure.

As Japan's digital security (ST) market enters a period of expansion, a proof-of-concept experiment for cross-border circulation using public blockchains was conducted, and its results were reported. At an online event held on August 4, five companies including BOOSTRY, SBI Securities, Daiwa Securities, and Penguin Securities participated, verifying Japan's first cross-border inter-dealer settlement using Ethereum and the stablecoin USDC. As of July 2026, the total issuance amount in the public offering market reached 349 billion yen, with 87 issues, growing to a scale of approximately 370 billion yen. In the demonstration, a bridge technology linking transaction histories on the public chain with a consortium-type chain established a management system that can restore rights even if the chain disappears. Additionally, to solve the challenge of creating investor lists, a scheme was adopted to copy transfer information on Ethereum to ibet for Fin. Looking ahead, it was indicated that a multi-chain environment will develop according to use cases, with domestic transactions on consortium-type chains and global transactions on public-type chains.

Franklin Templeton completed its acquisition of 250 Digital and formally established Franklin Crypto, a dedicated active digital-asset management division, in June 2026. The move expands Franklin's capabilities across institutional crypto strategies, separately managed accounts and digital-asset investment solutions, building on its presence in digital assets since 2018. The company's Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund had more than $650 million represented on the Stellar blockchain as of April 2026, while BENJI investor participation rose more than 140% over the preceding two years. Franklin also partnered with MoonPay to connect its Benji platform with MoonPay Trade's infrastructure and collaborated with Binance on an off-exchange collateral program using tokenized money market fund shares. The company's alternatives AUM reached $295.4 billion as of July 31, 2026, up from $258.9 billion a year earlier, while total AUM stood at $1.80 trillion.

Franklin Templeton has begun distributing its tokenized money market fund through HashKey Exchange, giving the Hong Kong platform's clients access to a blockchain-wrapped pool of U.S. government debt. The Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Liquidity Fund, traded as grBENJI, invests primarily in U.S. government money market instruments and dollar cash assets, and is now available on HashKey's Earn channel. Franklin Templeton manages $1.8 trillion in assets and has run a tokenized version of the fund since 2021, when it became the first U.S.-registered mutual fund to use a public blockchain to record share ownership. The product is available to professional investors only and is not available for offering to the public in Hong Kong. RWA.xyz currently lists the BENJI token yielding around 3.6% over seven and 30 days at a net asset value of $1.00, with just over 1,100 holders, though published figures for the fund's size vary considerably depending on whether a single token or the whole suite is counted.