Amundi Launches First Tokenized Fund Share on Ethereum in Major TradFi Move

Europe’s largest asset manager bridges traditional finance and blockchain, enabling on-chain investment in a money market fund with stablecoin settlement.

In a landmark development for the convergence of traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi), European asset management giant Amundi has launched its first-ever tokenized share class on the Ethereum blockchain. The move represents a significant step by a major institutional player to leverage public blockchain infrastructure for core financial products, signaling growing acceptance and experimentation within the regulated financial world. The new offering, a tokenized version of a euro-denominated money market fund, utilizes digital wallet infrastructure from CACEIS to enable on-chain orders and opens the door for settlement in stablecoins or future central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).

This initiative is not a full migration to blockchain but a strategic expansion. Amundi is creating a parallel, blockchain-native access point to its established funds, maintaining all traditional distribution channels while offering a new, transparent, and potentially more efficient pathway for a subset of investors. For the crypto ecosystem, the launch is a powerful validation of Ethereum's capability to serve as a settlement and record-keeping layer for regulated, large-scale financial instruments. It underscores a tangible use case beyond speculation: the digitization of ownership and the streamlining of archaic financial processes.

Breaking Down Amundi's Blockchain Foray: The J28 EUR DLT Share Class

At the heart of this announcement is the creation of a new share class for an existing Amundi fund: the Amundi Funds Cash EUR – J28 EUR DLT. This is not a new fund but a novel way to own and transact shares in the firm's euro money market fund. Money market funds are typically considered low-risk, liquid investments that invest in short-term debt securities like treasury bills and commercial paper.

The critical innovation lies in the "DLT" designation. Ownership of this specific share class and all subsequent transactions are recorded on the Ethereum (ETH) network. According to Amundi, this blockchain-based structure enables "transparent record keeping and full traceability of transactions." Every subscription, redemption, and transfer of these tokenized shares creates an immutable record on Ethereum, providing a level of auditability and operational transparency that is difficult to achieve with traditional, siloed book-entry systems.

It is crucial to understand what this token represents. Each token is a digital security—a direct claim on the underlying assets of the fund's J28 share class. They are not utility tokens or governance tokens for a protocol; they are the digitized, on-chain equivalent of a traditional fund share. This distinction places Amundi's move firmly within the realm of security tokenization, a segment long predicted to be blockchain's "killer app" in finance but which has seen cautious, incremental adoption by major institutions until now.

The Infrastructure Partnership: CACEIS as the Gateway

Amundi did not undertake this project alone. The asset manager partnered with CACEIS, a major European asset-servicing banking group owned by Crédit Agricole and Santander. CACEIS provided the essential regulated infrastructure that bridges the off-chain fund with the on-chain tokens.

CACEIS's role is twofold. First, it provides the digital wallet system that holds the tokenized shares. These are not typical MetaMask-style self-custody wallets; they are institutional-grade, custodial wallets designed to meet stringent regulatory standards for safeguarding financial instruments. Second, CACEIS operates the blockchain-based order platform that facilitates the subscription and redemption process.

This infrastructure is key to the product's functionality. It enables continuous order processing outside of traditional market hours and establishes what Amundi and CACEIS describe as a framework for "near-instant execution." The partnership effectively creates a controlled, compliant environment where institutional workflows can interact with public blockchain settlement.

Settlement Revolution: Paving the Way for Stablecoins and CBDCs

Perhaps the most forward-looking aspect of this launch is its settlement mechanism. Amundi and CACEIS have designed the system so that subscriptions and redemptions can be settled in stablecoins or potential future central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).

This is a profound development. Currently, most traditional fund subscriptions require wire transfers through banking networks, which can be slow, costly, and limited to business hours. By accepting stablecoins—digital assets pegged to fiat currencies like the euro—the process can become near-instantaneous and operate 24/7. It directly connects the world of TradFi investment products with the growing ecosystem of digital dollar and digital euro equivalents.

Furthermore, by explicitly naming future CBDCs as a planned settlement option, Amundi and its partners are positioning themselves at the forefront of financial infrastructure evolution. As central banks like the European Central Bank progress with their digital euro project, Amundi's platform is already architecturally prepared to integrate it seamlessly. This move demonstrates how TradFi institutions are not just observing crypto trends but are actively building bridges to anticipated future state-sponsored digital assets.

Contextualizing the Move: TradFi's Cautious March On-Chain

Amundi's launch must be viewed within the broader trajectory of institutional adoption. It follows a pattern of careful, controlled experimentation by large financial entities:

• BlackRock's BUIDL: In March 2024, asset management behemoth BlackRock launched its first tokenized fund on Ethereum, the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL). Like Amundi's offering, it focuses on short-term assets and aims for digital settlement.
• Franklin Templeton's BENJI: Since 2021, Franklin Templeton has operated its OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund (FOBXX), whose shares are represented as BENJI tokens on both Stellar and Polygon blockchains.
• Société Générale's Green Bonds: French banking giant Société Générale has issued multiple series of digital green bonds as security tokens on Ethereum.

Comparing these initiatives reveals strategic differences in approach. Franklin Templeton has been a pioneer, running a live fund for years across multiple chains. BlackRock's entry was seismic due to its market size, focusing squarely on Ethereum to serve institutional clients. Amundi's move shares similarities with BlackRock's in its use of Ethereum and focus on money markets, but it distinguishes itself through its explicit partnership with a specialist asset servicer (CACEIS) and its clear roadmap for stablecoin/CBDC settlement.

Amundi's strategy appears less about creating a standalone digital product and more about modernizing fund infrastructure incrementally. By adding a tokenized share class rather than converting an entire fund, it mitigates risk and regulatory complexity while still gaining practical experience with DLT. This "parallel path" model may become a blueprint for other large, conservative institutions.

Implications for Crypto Investors and the Ethereum Ecosystem

For crypto-native readers and investors, this development carries several important implications:

1. Validation of Ethereum as Institutional Settlement Layer: The choice of Ethereum by Amundi, following BlackRock, reinforces ETH's position as the leading smart contract platform for serious institutional finance. Its security, decentralization, and robust developer ecosystem are being prioritized over alternatives for high-value asset tokenization.
2. Growth of Real-World Asset (RWA) Tokenization: This is a prime example of RWA tokenization in action. It brings yield-generating, regulated financial assets onto blockchain rails. Increased activity in this sector could drive demand for blockchain services and potentially increase network utility.
3. Bridge Between Stablecoin Liquidity and TradFi Yield: The stablecoin settlement feature creates a direct pipeline. Holders of large euro or dollar stablecoin balances can now potentially access institutional-grade yield products without converting back to fiat through traditional banks, strengthening the use case for stablecoins as functional currency rather than just trading pairs.
4. Focus on Infrastructure, Not Speculation: The launch underscores that the most significant institutional moves are happening in infrastructure modernization—settlement, custody, record-keeping—not in speculative crypto asset investment. The value accrual from these developments may flow to foundational protocols and service providers rather than any particular new token.

Strategic Conclusion: A Milestone on the Path to Hybrid Finance

Amundi's launch of its first tokenized fund share on Ethereum is more than a pilot project; it is a strategic milestone in the inevitable fusion of traditional and decentralized finance. It demonstrates that leading TradFi institutions are moving beyond research phases into live production environments using public blockchains.

The broader market insight is clear: the tokenization of financial assets is accelerating from theory to practice. Driven by demands for operational efficiency, transparency, and new investor access points, major players are now building the plumbing for a hybrid financial system. In this system, public blockchains like Ethereum act as shared settlement networks while regulated intermediaries like CACEIS provide necessary compliance and custody gateways.

For readers watching this space evolve, key things to monitor next include:

• Uptake Volume: The success metric here is not publicity but actual assets flowing into the J28 EUR DLT share class.
• Stablecoin Integration: Watch for announcements detailing which specific stablecoins will be accepted for settlement and when.
• CBDC Pilots: Amundi's platform could become a testbed for early digital euro experiments.
• Competitive Response: Will other European asset managers like AllianzGI or DWS announce similar initiatives?
• Regulatory Developments: How will EU regulations like MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets) interact with these tokenized securities?

Amundi’s move confirms that the future of finance is not a wholesale replacement of old systems by new ones, but a gradual integration where blockchain technology solves specific inefficiencies within a still largely traditional framework. For crypto enthusiasts, it provides concrete evidence that the technology they champion is being adopted at the highest levels of global finance—not to overthrow it, but to upgrade it from within