F/m Investments has 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) file possession of its roughly $6 billion in shares on a permissioned blockchain, whereas remaining a regular 1940 Act trade‑traded fund.
In its press launch, F/m describes the submitting because the “first of its form” from an ETF issuer searching for US regulatory aid particularly for tokenized shares of a registered funding firm.
The corporate says 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 right now, successfully making tokenization simply one other approach to file who owns the shares, quite than a separate new asset.
A broader tokenization development in conventional funds
F/m’s strategy intently tracks current 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 data for its onchain US authorities cash market fund to a public blockchain whereas maintaining the product below the Funding Firm Act.
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In F/m’s case, nonetheless, tokenization could be layered onto a listed Treasury ETF quite than a cash market mutual fund, probably widening the universe of token‑enabled, regulated fastened‑revenue merchandise.
The agency 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 via a single share class, with out altering its funding goal or portfolio.
The appliance comes 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 added remark, however had not acquired a response by publication.
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