BNP Paribas explores public blockchain infrastructure for money market fund tokenisation

The tokenised shares were issued under a permissioned access model, whereby holdings and transfers were restricted to eligible and authorised participants.

The initiative follows BNP Paribas Asset Management’s earlier tokenised money market fund issuance in Luxembourg on a private blockchain. This second tokenised money market fund project was implemented using a different technological and operational setup through the Ethereum blockchain.

Within this project, BNP Paribas Asset Management acted as the fund issuer. BNP Paribas Securities Services business acted as transfer agent and fund dealing services provider, while BNP Paribas CIB’s AssetFoundry platform provided the tokenisation and connectivity layer to the public blockchain network.

Julien Clausse, head of AssetFoundry at BNP Paribas says: “BNP Paribas’ AssetFoundry platform delivers key digital-assets capabilities, from tokenisation to network connectivity and wallet-related functionalities within a controlled setup. This initiative allows us to better understand the operational and governance implications of tokenisation for money market funds.”

BNP Paribas’ Securities Services business operated the wallet setup and held the private key for the pilot transaction.

The initiative was conducted as a one‑off, limited intra‑group experiment, enabling BNP Paribas to test new end‑to‑end processes, from issuance and transfer agency to tokenisation and public‑blockchain connectivity, within a controlled and regulated framework.

“BNP Paribas Asset Management is committed to driving innovation that will ultimately benefits our clients," says Edouard Legrand, chief digital and data officer at BNP Paribas Asset Management. "This second issuance of tokenised money market funds, this time using public blockchain infrastructure, supports our ongoing efforts to explore how tokenisation can contribute to greater operational efficiency and security within a regulated framework.”