BNP Paribas taps Ethereum for new money market fund tokenization pilot

BNP Paribas Asset Management is tapping Ethereum for a new blockchain pilot, this time issuing a tokenised share class of a French‑domiciled money market fund.

The tokenized shares, issued onchain using BNP Paribas’ AssetFoundryTM platform, will offer gated access via a "permissioned access model on Ethereum ... whereby holdings and transfers are restricted to eligible and authorised participants, in line with applicable regulatory requirements," according to the announcement.

"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," the company wrote.

BNP Paribas Asset Management acted as the fund issuer, with BNP Paribas Securities Services business acting as transfer agent and dealer.

"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," Chief Digital and Data Officer at BNP Paribas Asset Management Edouard Legrand said in a statement.

BNP Paribas, a leading Paris-based multinational bank, has been an active participant in the institutional blockchain space. Last year, for instance, the firm issued an onchain share class of a money market fund in collaboration with Allfunds Blockchain, referring to the project as the "first natively tokenised money market fund."

The firm is also reportedly part of an experiment to bring the Swift global financial communications network to the Ethereum Layer 2 Linea, as well as a member of a joint project among big banks, reportedly including Santander, Bank of America, Barclays, Citi, Deutsche Bank, and Goldman Sachs, to explore issuing a stablecoin.