Switzerland's largest financial holding company UBS has launched the first tokenized investment fund, uMINT, which is a money market fund based on Ethereum's decentralized ledger technology and will be provided through authorized distribution partners.
UBS Tokenize continues to expand its tokenization services.
UBS announced in October 2023 the launch of a tokenized money market fund pilot on Ethereum, part of the 'Project Guardian' led by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). UBS is responsible for the trial, which involves the direct issuance of Variable Capital Company (VCC) funds on the digital asset network. The aim is to enhance fund distribution and facilitate the trading of VCC fund shares in the secondary market, thereby improving operational efficiency across the industry.
UBS Asset Management leverages its internal UBS Tokenize to continuously expand tokenization services, supporting opportunities throughout the asset lifecycle, including initiation, issuance, distribution, and custody, initially focusing on the tokenization of bonds, funds, and structured products. Today, it has launched the first tokenized investment fund, uMINT, which is a money market fund based on Ethereum's decentralized ledger technology and will be provided through authorized distribution partners.
Thomas Kaegi, Head of UBS Asset Management for the Asia Pacific region, stated:
We are seeing growing interest from investors in tokenized financial assets across asset classes. Through our global reach and collaboration with peers and regulators, we can now offer innovative solutions to our clients.
Traditional financial giants are joining in succession, and the future of RWA is promising.
According to data from RWA.xyz, the on-chain RWA assets currently reach up to $3.9 billion (excluding private credit), with Ethereum being the largest blockchain for tokenizing real-world assets, having tokenized assets valued at over $3 billion. Among the asset classes, U.S. Treasury bonds are predominant, amounting to $2.4 billion.
BlackRock's BUIDL has the highest market value for products holding U.S. Treasury bonds, valued at over $523 million, while Franklin Templeton's FOBXX on-chain U.S. government money market fund has a market value of about $408 million.
RWA stands for Real World Assets, representing the process of bringing many tangible or intangible assets from the non-blockchain world into the blockchain through tokenization technology, transforming them into assets that can be traded on-chain, known as 'real asset tokenization.' This allows traditional finance (TradFi) to benefit from the efficiency, transparency, and speed of blockchain technology. At the same time, it enables Web3 to access traditional financial investment products. It also serves as a bridge between TradFi and DeFi, allowing traditional financial assets to operate in the DeFi world and inject significant liquidity.
The successive entry of traditional financial giants like BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, and UBS also signifies the increasing acceptance of the tokenized market.
(Franklin announced the launch of the tokenized U.S. Treasury bond fund FOBXX on Base, supporting the Base RWA ecosystem)
This article about UBS launching the tokenized investment fund uMINT on Ethereum first appeared in Chain News ABMedia.
