Tokenization platform OpenEden said it has appointed the Bank of New York Mellon (BNY) as primary custodian for the underlying assets of its Tokenized US Treasury Bills ($TBILL) Fund which has $287 million in assets under management. It added that BNY Investments Dreyfus will manage the $TBILL Fund on OpenEden’s behalf as sub-manager.
OpenEden described $TBILL as “the world’s first tokenized US Treasury fund to receive an investment grade A rating from Moody’s.” While readers might assume that means it is currently A rated, an April report from the ratings agency had downgraded it from A-bf to Baa-bf.
Update: Moody’s responded to our queries noting the rating has been upgraded back to A-bf based on the appointment of BNY Mellon Investment Management Singapore as the investment manager. The ‘bf’ in the ratings stands for bond funds and the rating represents Moody’s opinion of the maturity-adjusted credit quality of the assets within the portfolio. It is not a credit rating.
While clearly having BNY involved in the fund should provide some peace of mind, an awareness of OpenEden’s controversial background might be useful for investors to make their own judgment.
OpenEden was co-founded by Eugene Ng and Jeremy Ng, with Jeremy currently acting as CEO. Eugene Ng stepped down late last year after he was allegedly involved in a drink spiking incident, which was captured on camera. Eugene was also a co-founder of DWF Labs, a controversial crypto market maker and investor. The Nation alleged that DWF Labs’ managing partner Andrei Grachev has a criminal record in Russia for operating a fraudulent scam.
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