When F/m Investments announced yesterday that it had filed for SEC exemptive relief to tokenize shares of its $6.3 billion TBIL Treasury ETF, the application raised more questions than it answered.
Unlike Franklin Templeton’s pioneering BENJI fund, which uses public blockchains as its official recordkeeping system, F/m proposed a permissioned distributed ledger. The tokenized treasury ETF shares would only be available to institutional investors through whitelisted wallets held by regulated broker-dealers. No retail access, no self custody. And despite the tokenization, TBIL would still have to trade on national securities exchanges or alternative trading systems, with the transfer agent maintaining the official share register for tokenized shares.
Where Franklin Templeton touts cost savings from replacing legacy reconciliation systems, F/m’s dual layer approach offers no such efficiency gains. The application reads less like a blockchain revolution and more like adding complexity to an already functional ETF structure. So what is F/m actually building? The answer reveals a sophisticated play for a market many traditional asset managers are starting to target: a true 24/7 liquidity infrastructure for stablecoin reserve management.
Stablecoin issuers manage reserves backing over $310 billion in outstanding tokens, a figure that some forecasts suggest could reach $2 trillion by 2030. These reserves must be rebalanced constantly as stablecoins are minted and redeemed on a 24/7 basis. Currently, issuers face significant constraints. Direct Treasury bills trade only during government market hours. Traditional money market funds price at NAV once daily. Treasury ETFs can potentially trade overnight on alternative trading systems, but only settle the next day. And web3 alternatives have restrictions on round-the-clock accessibility. F/m is building a bridge between traditional securities markets and the always on demands of crypto native capital markets through an ETF structure that can trade 24/7 on regulated broker-dealer platforms and settle instantly.
Article continues …
Want the full story? Pro subscribers get complete articles, exclusive industry analysis, and early access to legislative updates that keep you ahead of the competition. Join the professionals who are choosing deeper insights over surface level news.
