BlackRock Brings Tokenized Funds to European Markets with Ethereum Network
BlackRock, one of the world's largest asset managers, has launched tokenized share classes for its European Institutional Cash Series (ICS) money market funds. This move marks BlackRock's first foray into tokenized fund access in Europe.
The new on-chain share classes were built using the Kinexys by J.P. Morgan asset tokenization platform, with digital tokens minted on the Ethereum network. The initiative brings blockchain functionality to a combined $311 billion of assets under management across 15 markets, covering sterling, euro, and US dollar-denominated share classes within Europe's largest cash management platform.
Each digital token corresponds to a share in an underlying ICS fund, while the existing shareholder register continues to be administered through the fund's transfer agent. Investors gain access to a yield-bearing money market fund with the same scale and liquidity as before, alongside round-the-clock peer-to-peer transferability and near real-time visibility of on-chain movements.
The tokenized structure is designed to support emerging applications, including more efficient corporate treasury and liquidity management, digital collateral use, distribution through banking, wealth, and digital channels, and integration with wider tokenized financial ecosystems. The tokenized share classes will initially be offered across public debt constant net asset value (CNAV) and low volatility NAV money market funds in euro, sterling, and US dollar variants, spanning twelve individual funds with both daily distribution and accumulation options.
Access to the new share classes will be available across Bermuda, Estonia, France, Germany, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Singapore, and the UK. BlackRock's global head of cash distribution and head of international cash management business Beccy Milchem said, 'Today's launches represent an important evolution in how investors access and manage cash, while helping modernise capital markets infrastructure.'