Wall Street Eyes $7T Fund Sector With New Digital Asset and Blockchain Push
A new digital asset strategy is gaining traction as major financial players move to tokenize traditional assets, signaling a shift toward more fluid, blockchain-based capital markets. The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (BNY) and Goldman Sachs announced on July 23 a collaborative digital finance initiative designed to tokenize ownership records of select Money Market Funds (MMFs). According to industry data, as of July 16, 2025, total money market fund assets in the U.S. were $7.07 trillion.
Utilizing blockchain infrastructure developed by Goldman Sachs Digital Assets, the project enables clients to access and transact MMFs on BNY’s LiquidityDirect platform via mirrored tokens issued on GS DAP, Goldman’s proprietary blockchain. The firms stated:
This combined solution marks the first time in the U.S. that fund managers have enabled subscription for shares of their MMFs via BNY’s LiquidityDirect and digital asset platforms.
Blackrock, Fidelity Investments, Federated Hermes, BNY Investments Dreyfus, and Goldman Sachs Asset Management are among the initial participants. The initiative permits institutional clients to subscribe and redeem MMF shares digitally, while BNY continues to manage official custody and settlement within existing compliance frameworks.
Mathew McDermott, Global Head of Digital Assets at Goldman Sachs, framed the collaboration as part of a broader push toward digital transformation in finance: “Using tokens representing the value of shares of Money Market Funds on GS DAP would enable us to unlock their utility as a form of collateral and open up more seamless transferability in the future.”
The move integrates GS DAP into BNY’s infrastructure, enhancing collateral mobility and future cross-platform transferability. Laide Majiyagbe, Global Head of Liquidity, Financing and Collateral at BNY, reinforced the significance of the effort:
Mirrored tokenization of MMF shares is a first step in this transition, and we are proud to be at the forefront of this first-of-its-kind initiative.
While operational execution and regulatory guidance remain key challenges, advocates point to blockchain’s ability to modernize and streamline financial infrastructure. Separately, BNY Mellon also recently announced its partnership with Ripple, selecting the bank as the primary custodian for Ripple’s USD stablecoin, RLUSD. BNY Mellon will manage RLUSD’s reserves, ensuring seamless movement of assets and bolstering trust in the stablecoin for enterprise use cases like cross-border payments.
