F/m Investments requested the US Securities and Trade Fee (SEC) to permit it to tokenize shares of its flagship Treasury exchange-traded fund (ETF).
The $18 billion asset supervisor filed Wednesday for exemptive aid to let the F/m US Treasury 3 Month Invoice ETF (TBIL) report possession of its roughly $6 billion in shares on a permissioned blockchain, whereas remaining an ordinary 1940 Act change‑traded fund.
In its press launch, F/m describes the submitting because the “first of its form” from an ETF issuer looking for US regulatory aid particularly for tokenized shares of a registered funding firm.
The corporate mentioned the onchain illustration would use the identical Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures quantity, and carry the identical rights, charges, voting energy and financial phrases as TBIL shares in the present day, successfully making tokenization simply one other approach to report who owns the shares, slightly than a separate new asset.
A broader tokenization pattern in conventional funds
F/m’s strategy intently tracks latest experiments by Franklin Templeton, a significant US asset supervisor that has launched blockchain‑enabled US authorities cash market funds and different tokenization pilots, transferring share possession information for its onchain US authorities cash market fund to a public blockchain whereas holding the product below the Funding Firm Act.
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In F/m’s case, tokenization could be layered onto a listed Treasury ETF slightly than a cash market mutual fund, probably widening the universe of token‑enabled, regulated mounted‑earnings merchandise.
The corporate contrasts its mannequin with “stablecoins or unregistered digital tokens,” emphasizing that TBIL’s tokenized shares would nonetheless be topic to impartial board oversight, day by day portfolio transparency, third‑occasion custody and audit, and the broader protections of 1940 Act funds.
If the SEC grants the requested aid, F/m says TBIL would be capable to assist each conventional brokerage rails and digital-native, “token-aware” platforms by a single share class, with out altering its funding goal or portfolio.
The applying got here simply days after the New York Inventory Trade unveiled plans for a brand new venue geared toward 24/7 buying and selling and onchain settlement of tokenized shares and ETFs, as tokenization shifts from pilots to mainstream markets.
Cointelegraph reached out to F/m Investments for extra remark, however had not obtained a response by publication.
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