In July this year Aviva Investors launched a tokenized share class of an existing fund and Schroders received regulatory approval for its first tokenized share class of a U.S. dollar money market fund. The Tokenization Insight newsletter highlighted that this means four of the top five U.K. asset managers have taken tangible steps towards fund tokenization.

On 29 July 2026 Aviva Investors, the global asset management business of Aviva plc, said in a statement that it has launched a tokenized share class for the Aviva Investors US Dollar Liquidity Fund. This was the first tokenization of an Aviva Investors fund and follows the formation of a partnership between the firm and Ripple, the blockchain infrastructure provider, this year.

The Aviva fund was initially launched in 2020 and targets low-risk returns and daily liquidity by offering investors exposure to high-grade U.S. dollar-denominated short-term debt instruments. The new share class will be available to eligible investors with digital wallets, with all assets held by the fund’s custodian, The Bank of New York Mellon.

Mark Versey, chief executive at Aviva Investors, said on LinkedIn that the launch marked a significant step forward in the firm’s innovation agenda.

“While the underlying investment strategy remains unchanged, this new share class introduces enhanced operational capabilities and a digital access route for eligible institutional investors,” added Versey. “We believe this technology can support greater efficiency, transparency and connectivity across investment markets over time, ultimately helping to deliver better client experiences and outcomes.”

Aviva’s new share class was approved by the Central Bank of Ireland, which the asset manager said marks a regulatory first with regards to tokenized fund structures. On 8 June 2026 Schroders said in a statement that it had also received regulatory approval from the Central Bank of Ireland to launch the asset manager’s first tokenized share class of a US dollar money market fund, Schroders Onchain Active Returns.

Clients will be able to use smart contracts to execute redemptions and transfers via Kinexys by J.P. Morgan’s multi-chain asset tokenization platform.

Meagen Burnett, chief financial officer of Schroders, said on LinkedIn that with the support of Kinexys by J.P. Morgan, the new solution is designed to enhance operational efficiency to execute secure and transparent transactions, while unlocking possible future use cases across treasury and liquidity management.

Collateral efficiency

On 14 April 2026 Legal & General Asset Management said in a statement that its suite of liquidity funds was now available on the Calastone Tokenised Distribution (CTD) Network. This enables investors to access L&G’s liquidity strategies in tokenized form via blockchain-enabled infrastructure so L&G can expand distribution while maintaining operational efficiency in a safe and secure environment. L&G manages over £50bn in liquidity assets according to the statement which are available in tokenized format in US dollars, euros and sterling.

Calastone’s technology is designed to integrate with existing settlement and transfer agent infrastructure, enabling L&G to offer tokenized share classes of existing funds with minimal additional operational complexity and no impact for investors continuing to access the funds via traditional methods.

Ross McDonald, liquidity investment specialist at L&G, said in a statement: “Tokenized distribution provides meaningful enhancements in efficiency and reach, and we are excited to partner with Calastone as we accelerate innovation across our liquidity franchise.”

Simon Keefe, head of digital solutions at Calastone, said in a blog that this was a clear signal that tokenization is moving into real-world application.

“While much of the recent industry focus has been on how tokenization can be implemented, what is now becoming clear is where it delivers the the most immediate value: distribution,” Keefe added.

Keefe continued that the significance of L&G’s launch lies in both its scale and its intent with over £50bn in liquidity assets now available in tokenized form. He argued that liquidity funds are a natural starting point for tokenization as they combine capital preservation, same-day settlement and competitive yield in a structure that is already well understood by investors. He said: “Bringing these strategies into a tokenized format demonstrates how established products can be adapted to new distribution.”

He also highlighted that money market funds are at the centre of institutional liquidity management and tokenized collateral markets need assets that are liquid, regulated, familiar and capable of generating yield. Therefore, he believes the next phase of tokenized collateral may extend into the funds clients already use to manage liquidity, including fixed-term funds and money market funds, which will bring  benefits to the industry by reducing the amount of liquidity that has to sit idle because infrastructure cannot move quickly enough.

If fund units can be pledged, transferred or mobilized directly, investors may be able to keep more liquidity invested while still meeting collateral obligations and the same asset could support yield generation and collateral readiness, according to Keefe.

“Many fund managers, banks and market infrastructure providers are actively exploring how tokenised money market holdings can be mobilized as collateral while remaining yield-bearing,” he added.

For example, Keefe said Franklin Templeton and Binance, the crypto exchange, have launched an institutional off-exchange collateral programme allowing eligible clients to use the fund manager’s Benji-issued tokenized money market fund shares as collateral while trading.

Another use case was demonstrated when Aberdeen, the U.K. fund manager, Lloyds, the U.K. bank and Archax, the regulated digital assets exchange, completed the first use of digital assets as collateral in a regulated U.K. financial market in July this year.

Peter Left, head of digital & markets innovation, at Lloyds Banking Group said on LinkedIn that the transaction demonstrated how regulated digital tokens can be used effectively in high-volume trading environments and help enable new collateral efficiencies, lower trading desk funding costs, improve capital efficiency and reduce settlement times.

Left said Lloyds will build on this pilot of using tokenized gilts as collateral to also settle tokenized gilts and tokenized money market fund purchases with tokenized deposits.

“There is limited infrastructure that connects tokenized deposits with digital assets, and our pilots will represent a pivotal step towards establishing this and provide a long-term foundation to build from,” Left added.

The Tokenization Insight newsletter concluded that money market funds are emerging as the tokenization starting point for asset managers because they provide the clearest immediate utility of enabling investors to hold yield-bearing cash instruments that can ultimately be transferred, redeemed, programmed and mobilized as collateral through digital infrastructure.

“Now everyone has issued their tokenized fund, the more important question is: which asset manager can turn tokenized fund ownership into a genuinely useful 24/7 liquidity, collateral and treasury-management product?,” added the newsletter.