Key Takeaways:
BNY is moving $8.6 trillion in transfer agency records onto blockchain as the custodian bank expands digital asset infrastructure for tokenized funds.
"We think of BNY as modernizing a function that sits behind every single fund transaction by bringing the books and records onchain," Carolyn Weinberg, chief product and innovation officer at BNY, said.
The bank, which oversees more than $59 trillion in assets under custody and administration, will maintain its traditional transfer agency alongside the new digital platform. Baillie Gifford, an Edinburgh-based asset manager with $261 billion under management, will use the service for what it described as the first fully native UK-regulated tokenized fund. BlackRock and BNY's Dreyfus money market business are also expected to use the platform for planned tokenized products.
The move places BNY at the center of Wall Street's push to tokenize traditional assets, creating a shared ownership ledger that reduces manual reconciliation between fund managers, custodians and other intermediaries. BNY is also preparing tokenized US Treasuries and has executed after-hours Treasury transactions with stablecoin issuers, according to a client letter.
BNY's digital transfer agency supports full onchain asset movement through fiat and stablecoin subscriptions and redemptions, enabled by new mint and burn capabilities, the company said. The service will initially launch with eligible US and UK clients.
The bank has been expanding digital asset services since creating its Digital Assets unit in February 2021. It launched Bitcoin and Ethereum custody in October 2022 and expanded support for Circle's USDC minting and burning in June 2026. In May, BNY announced a collaboration to offer crypto custody in the Abu Dhabi Global Market.
BNY has not disclosed which blockchain network will support the new platform. The bank expects traditional systems to coexist for years, Emily Portney, global head of asset servicing at BNY, said.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
