BNY Mellon Launches Blockchain-Based Money Market Fund for Institutional Clients

BNY Mellon, one of the oldest and largest banks in the world, has launched BLIQUID, a blockchain-based money market fund. The new product is designed for institutional clients in the US and UK, with plans to expand further.

The BLIQUID tokens represent shares in a traditional money market fund created by BNY Mellon's established fund management arm. Instead of holding legacy system- recorded shares, institutional investors can now hold tokenized versions on a blockchain. The bank built this infrastructure on top of its global digital transfer agency capabilities, which enable the issuance and tracking of these tokenized shares.

BitGo, a digital asset infrastructure firm known for its custody and wallet solutions, is partnering with BNY Mellon on this initiative. While the specifics of BitGo's role remain unclear, the company has helped lay the groundwork for BLIQUID through its own digital transfer agency capabilities.

This marks the bank's latest move into digital assets, following the launch of its custody platform in October 2022 and expansion of global digital transfer agency capabilities in October 2023. BNY Mellon is operating within well-defined regulatory boundaries, but expansion to other markets will depend on how quickly those frameworks develop.

For institutional investors, BLIQUID represents another on-ramp into tokenized products from a trusted counterparty. The fact that it's a money market fund makes the risk profile familiar. However, infrastructure choices behind BLIQUID will matter as interoperability between tokenized assets becomes a competitive differentiator.