F/m Investments, an $18 billion ETF issuer, has filed with the SEC seeking permission to launch tokenized shares of its $6.3 billion US Treasury 3 Month Bill ETF (TBIL) on a permissioned blockchain ledger.
This move could mark a first for the industry. The firm is set to become the first to tokenize shares of a registered investment company. CEO Alexander Morris stated that tokenizing traditional financial instruments is inevitable and that the SEC’s decision could set a precedent.
“Tokenization is coming to securities markets whether we file this application or not […] The question is whether it happens inside the regulatory framework investors have relied on for 85 years, or without that set of protections for investors,” he stated.
This new approach would allow TBIL to support traditional brokerage rails and digital-native, token-aware platforms through a single share class. It wouldn’t, however, change what the fund holds or how it trades.
The requested relief would allow TBIL’s (TBIL) existing ETF shares to be represented on a blockchain ledger under the same CUSIP, with the same rights, fees, voting rights, and economic terms as TBIL shares today.
F/m Investment also promised “board oversight, daily transparency, third-party custody, and audit.”
The firm stated that its approach ensures tokenized shares remain within the framework of the Investment Company Act of 1940, a law that applies to investment companies, such as mutual funds, ETFs, and closed-end funds.
In its statement, the company stated, “Unlike stablecoins or unregistered digital tokens—which generally cannot guarantee backing by traditional assets—F/m’s approach keeps tokenized shares firmly within the Investment Company Act of 1940.”
F/m’s approach is very similar to Franklin Templeton’s recent tests with blockchain-enabled US government money market funds and other tokenization pilots. For example, it moved the records of who owns shares in its on-chain US government money market fund to a public blockchain while keeping the product under the Investment Company Act.
However, it differs on the ground that tokenization would be layered onto a listed Treasury ETF rather than a money market mutual fund, potentially widening the universe of token‑enabled, regulated fixed‑income products.
“First of many,” NovaDius Wealth Management CEO Nate Geraci said of F/m Investments’ filing. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink and COO Rob Goldstein have compared tokenization’s potential impact to the rise of the early internet. “Ledgers haven’t been this exciting since the invention of double-entry bookkeeping,” they wrote.
RWAs just overtook DEXs in TVL
This move by F/m Investments comes amid an accelerating industry-wide shift toward asset tokenization. The total market for tokenized US treasuries has swelled to $9.57 billion, according to RWA.xyz.
Overall, RWAs have achieved $21.4 billion in TVL, surpassing DEXs for the first time, up 210% year over year from approximately $6.8 billion in January 2025. RWAs are standing at $18.9 billion while DEXs are at $16.7 billion.
As reported by Cryptopolitan, earlier in the week, the New York Stock Exchange announced plans to develop a platform for the trade and on-chain settlement of tokenized US-listed stocks and exchange-traded funds, offering 24/7 operations and instant settlement.
Ondo Finance also launched a “full TradFi portfolio” of stocks, ETFs, bonds, and commodities on Solana, expanding its offering beyond the Ethereum and BNB Chain.
Meanwhile, shares of the TBIL ETF are steady, with a minor 0.02% decline in after-hours trading, after closing 0.02% higher. It is trading at $49.98 at the time of writing.
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Source: https://www.cryptopolitan.com/18b-f-m-seeks-sec-approval-to-tokenize-etf/
