Legal & General Asset Management put £50 billion ($68 billion) of its liquidity funds onchain on April 14, 2026, through SS&C’s Calastone Tokenised Distribution Network. The UK’s largest asset manager, which oversees £1.2 trillion in total assets, launched tokenized versions of its money market funds on Ethereum and EVM-compatible blockchains, enabling institutional investors to buy, hold, and transfer fund units with same-day settlement across GBP, EUR, and USD share classes.
A money market fund is a type of investment fund that holds short-term, low-risk debt instruments like government bonds and commercial paper, designed to preserve capital while generating modest returns. Tokenizing these funds means each share is represented as a digital token on a blockchain, making transfers faster and settlement near-instant.
- Legal & General Asset Management tokenized £50 billion ($68B) in liquidity funds via Calastone’s Ethereum-based network, going live April 14, 2026.
- Tokens are issued on Ethereum and EVM-compatible chains in GBP, EUR, and USD denominations, with same-day settlement replacing the traditional T+2 cycle.
- Calastone’s smart contracts handle dynamic token minting and burning with each subscription and redemption, fully onchain.
- This is L&G’s second tokenization push, following a November 2024 pilot with Archax, and one of the largest institutional deployments of tokenized funds in 2026.
Published: April 16, 2026 05:00 UTC
Why this is a significant institutional move
Traditional money market funds settle on a T+2 basis, meaning a fund redemption requested Monday doesn’t land in an investor’s account until Wednesday. Tokenization collapses that window. Calastone’s network processes subscriptions and redemptions through smart contracts that mint or burn tokens as trades confirm, enabling same-day or near-instant settlement with fiat settlement infrastructure still in place.
L&G’s move is notable for its scale. At £50 billion ($68 billion), these aren’t niche test funds. They’re core institutional liquidity products used by pension funds, insurers, and corporate treasuries to park short-term capital. Bringing them onchain means large institutions can interact with blockchain infrastructure without abandoning the familiar fund structure they already trust.
Ross McDonald, L&G Liquidity Investment Specialist, said the move provides “meaningful enhancements in efficiency and reach,” pointing to the ability to distribute tokenized fund shares to digitally native investors who are currently underserved by legacy fund distribution rails.
How Calastone’s network works
Calastone, now operating under SS&C Technologies, built its Tokenised Distribution Network to sit between fund managers and investors without requiring either side to overhaul existing back-office systems. The network handles token creation, order routing, trade aggregation, and reconciliation while linking to traditional settlement and transfer agent infrastructure.
Smart contracts govern each transaction. When an investor subscribes to an L&G liquidity fund through the network, a corresponding token is minted on Ethereum. When they redeem, the token is burned. The ledger is always in sync with the fund’s actual holdings, with future integration planned for stablecoin and central bank digital currency (CBDC) settlement as those instruments mature.
L&G had previously tokenized fund access in November 2024 through a partnership with Archax, which focused on professional and institutional access. The Calastone integration is a distribution-layer move, meaning it expands the investor base rather than just creating a new access wrapper for existing investors.
What it means for institutional tokenization
The broader tokenized fund market has been building toward this. BlackRock’s BUIDL fund on Ethereum crossed $500 million in 2024. Franklin Templeton’s onchain money market fund has been operating since 2021. But those products are crypto-native instruments designed for digital asset investors. L&G’s approach is different: it’s taking an existing £50 billion product with established investor relationships and making it accessible via blockchain rails without restructuring the fund itself.
That model is more replicable. Asset managers don’t need to create a new fund, register new vehicles, or build new regulatory relationships. They plug existing products into Calastone’s infrastructure and gain faster settlement, broader distribution, and programmable transfer capabilities.
For corporate treasuries and institutional allocators, the appeal is operational. Faster settlement means capital isn’t idle in transit. Same-day liquidity from a money market fund is a meaningful operational upgrade when managing cash across multiple entities and currencies.
Frequently asked questions
What is a tokenized money market fund?
A tokenized money market fund is a traditional money market fund where each share is represented as a digital token on a blockchain. The underlying assets remain unchanged, but investors can transfer ownership instantly, settle trades same-day, and access the fund through digital infrastructure without waiting for legacy settlement cycles.
Why does settlement speed matter for money market funds?
Money market funds are used as short-term liquidity instruments. If redemptions take two days to settle, capital sits idle during that window, creating opportunity cost. Same-day settlement means institutional treasuries can move capital more efficiently, reducing idle cash and improving working capital management.
Is this different from BlackRock’s BUIDL fund?
Yes. BlackRock’s BUIDL was built as a new, crypto-native fund for digital asset investors. L&G’s approach tokenizes an existing £50 billion product with established regulatory standing and an existing investor base, then distributes it through Calastone’s blockchain rails — making the model more accessible to traditional asset managers looking to modernize without restructuring.
