Funds and ETFs

Investment funds pool money from many investors and invest it together. Mutual fund shares are bought from the fund itself, usually once a day at a set price. ETFs, or exchange-traded funds, trade on a stock exchange like shares. Behind both is a record of who owns what, kept by a transfer agent and the brokers and custodians in between, and trades settle on the next business day.

Tokenizing a fund means issuing its shares as tokens, or recording them on a blockchain alongside the official record. Often this is done through a new share class: a version of an existing fund that holds the same investments but records ownership differently. Ownership can then update as soon as a trade happens, shares can move outside market hours, and they can be used as collateral or split into smaller pieces. For fund managers, it opens new ways to reach investors. For investors, it can mean faster access and lower costs.

In August 2026, BlackRock launched 12 tokenized share classes of its European money market funds on Ethereum, working with JPMorgan’s Kinexys, while the transfer agent still keeps the official list of owners. ETFs are further behind. In January 2026, F/m Investments asked the SEC for permission to record shares of its Treasury bill ETF on a blockchain, which it called the first request of its kind from an ETF issuer. The technology works. The rules are still catching up.