F/m Investments, which manages $18 billion in client assets, has applied to the SEC for permission to tokenize its flagship U.S. Treasury 3-month ETF (TBIL) on a permissioned blockchain ledger.
With this move, the company aims to enhance operational efficiency and record-keeping while fully maintaining the ETF’s traditional trading, arbitrage and regulatory framework.
The tokenized ETF shares are also expected to enable modern digital interfaces and support automatic allocation features, allowing the fund to safely adapt to the emerging tokenized securities market.
Under this proposal, tokenized shares would be created and redeemed on a 1:1 basis with regular ETF shares, retaining the same ownership, voting, and economic rights. Secondary market trading will continue only through registered broker-dealers on national exchanges or alternative trading systems.
Blockchain acts solely as a controlled record-keeping and settlement layer, and transfers are restricted to permitted activities.
Alexander Morris, CEO of F/m Investments, said the company aims to create a regulated pathway for tokenization. Tokenization is a rapidly emerging digital theme that is increasingly being adopted by major institutions developing tokenized investment products and blockchain trading platforms.
“The question is: Will it happen within the regulatory framework that investors have relied on for 85 years, or will it happen without a set of protections for investors?” Morris said. “Rather than sit on the sidelines, we want to build a trajectory that connects innovation and investor protection.”
