Hey, it’s Marc,
Name one major institution that launched tokenized funds on a private blockchain and stayed there. You can’t.
BlackRock moved to Ethereum. Franklin Templeton moved to Ethereum. JPMorgan moved to Ethereum. Last week, BNP Paribas joined them as the first and largest European bank. And they went further. [RELEASE]
Let’s unpack.
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What happened
On February 19, 2026, BNP Paribas Asset Management issued a tokenized share class of an existing French-domiciled MMF on Ethereum. This made it the first major European bank to launch a regulated MMF on a public blockchain. [RELEASE]
Zooming in: BNP Paribas launched the tokenized MMF by combining three internal business together:
BNP Paribas Asset Management acts as the issuer.
BNP Paribas Securities Services serves as the transfer agent and custodian, holding private keys.
BNP Paribas CIB‘s AssetFoundry provides the tokenization engine and connects to Ethereum.
The entire fund lifecycle; issuance, custody, dealing, and settlement is controlled in-house. No major competitor has demonstrated this level of vertical integration on a public chain.
Strategic understatement: BNP Paribas deliberately framed this as a “one-off, limited intra-group experiment”. However, the advanced nature of the infrastructure suggests it is, in fact, a blueprint for future operations, rather than a simple isolated test.
Zooming out: BNP Paribas is part of Qivalis, a 12-bank European consortium building a MiCA-compliant euro stablecoin, with MiCA’s securities framework going live mid-2026. What’s emerging is Europe’s answer to the US-led tokenization market: a regulated, euro-denominated financial infrastructure running on Ethereum.
Stepping back: Starting March 2024, BlackRock put BUIDL on public Ethereum, followed by Franklin Templeton, JPMorgan, and now BNP Paribas.,
The token standard choice: When launching a regulated product onchain, enforcing compliance becomes the hard part. BlackRock and JPMorgan use standard ERC-20 tokens with compliance enforced around the token (whitelists, platform access gates).
BNP Paribas went further: ERC-3643 embeds compliance inside the token itself, validating every transfer against on-chain identity rules before it executes, no gatekeeper needed. The result is a token that is both publicly settable on Ethereum and institutionally restricted by design.
By the numbers: The tokenized US Treasury market is valued at $10.84B in total value, with Ethereum capturing $5.5B, more than all other chains combined. BlackRock leads all platforms at $2.3B and 20.78% market share. BNP Paribas, a €1.6 trillion asset manager just entered this market.
The gap: The US got a two-year head start, growing its tokenized Treasury market to $10.8B without a unified rulebook, while Europe’s on-chain equivalent remains in the tens of millions. Europe is now building with MiCA across 27 member states from day one, turning its late start into a structural advantage in a market projected to reach trillions.
