BNP Paribas Joins BlackRock and JPMorgan in the Rush to Tokenize Funds on Ethereum

BNP Paribas has launched a tokenized share class of a French-domiciled money market fund on the public Ethereum blockchain. The firm is the largest bank in Europe, with over $3 trillion in assets.

This marks another significant step in traditional finance’s gradual migration to distributed ledger technology.

Ethereum RWA Market Tops $15 Billion as BNP Paribas Joins Tokenization Push

The pilot project, executed through the bank’s AssetFoundry platform, allows BNP Paribas to test the integration of public blockchains into heavily regulated fund structures.

However, the bank is maintaining strict control over the digital assets.

The tokenized shares utilize a permissioned access model, meaning holdings and transfers are cryptographically restricted to a whitelist of authorized participants who meet stringent compliance standards.

“The initiative was conducted as a one‑off, limited intra‑group experiment, enabling BNP Paribas to test new end‑to‑end processes, from issuance and transfer agency to tokenisation and public blockchain connectivity, within a controlled and regulated framework,” the bank explained.

This walled-garden approach reflects a growing consensus among institutional asset managers. They clearly want to utilize the underlying settlement infrastructure of public networks like Ethereum.

However, these firms still demand the strict access controls inherent to traditional financial systems.

Notably, the initiative follows a previous BNP Paribas pilot that utilized a private blockchain in Luxembourg. This pivot signals a cautious institutional shift toward public networks to capture broader future interoperability.

Money market funds have emerged as the primary testing ground for Wall Street’s blockchain ambitions. For institutional investors, tokenizing these funds offers a regulated, yield-bearing alternative to fiat-backed stablecoins.

Furthermore, traditional fund processing relies on slow, batch-based settlement systems that can trap capital. Tokenization introduces the possibility of atomic, nearly instantaneous settlement, vastly improving capital efficiency.

“This second issuance of tokenized money market funds, this time using public blockchain infrastructure, supports our ongoing efforts to explore how tokenization can contribute to greater operational efficiency and security within a regulated framework,” Edouard Legrand, chief digital and data officer at BNP Paribas Asset Management, said in a statement.

Meanwhile, BNP Paribas joins a crowded field of incumbent heavyweights, including BlackRock, JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Fidelity Investments, all of which have deployed tokenized money market funds on Ethereum.

According to Token Terminal data, Ethereum currently dominates the tokenized asset market, leading in stablecoins, commodities, and tokenized funds.

The total market capitalization of real-world assets on the Ethereum ecosystem, excluding stablecoins, recently surpassed $15 billion, up roughly 200% year over year.