Spiko, a French fintech platform you’ve probably never heard of, said it now hosts the world’s largest tokenized fund, with some $2.39 billion in assets under management as of late last month.
At the end of October, Spiko overtook Circle’s USYC (Hashnote International Short Duration Yield Fund Ltd) and BlackRock’s BUIDL, both of which have more than $2 billion in assets under management, the company said in a post on its website. The company is also on a roll: it raised $90 million in October at a valuation of around $800 million.
Over the past three months, the company’s assets—particularly those in the Spiko Amundi Overnight Swap Fund (SAFO)—have grown by about 30% a month, while its investor base has expanded by about 18% a month, reaching more than 10,000 legal entities and individuals.
Spiko offers blockchain-based money market funds under the European Union’s UCITS regulatory framework, which governs the creation, management and cross-border marketing of mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that can be distributed to retail investors.
Tokenized cash equivalents, such as highly liquid Treasury bills, have become a cornerstone of the institutional crypto world. Companies including BlackRock and Franklin Templeton have drawn considerable attention for launching blockchain-based funds.
Spiko CEO Paul-Adrien Hyppolite, who was deputy head of the financial markets division at the French Treasury Department before co-founding the company in June 2023, said the firm’s French roots may be one reason people have not heard of it. The flagship SAFO tokenized cash fund launched seven months ago in partnership with BNP Paribas and Amundi.
“We started in France, so it's very French as a result,” Hyppolite said in an interview. “It was also a bit more difficult because initially we were just a startup, no track record, no brand name, of course. So we are building that up.”
Europe presents a major opportunity for tokenized money market funds, according to Hyppolite. Compared with regular bank deposits, they account for only a tiny fraction of funds there.
By contrast, the U.S. has around $8 trillion in money market funds—about 40% of the cash held in bank deposits, which totals between $16 trillion and $18 trillion.
“I'm convinced that things will change in the sense that we will catch up,” Hyppolite said.
To diversify beyond France, Spiko is expanding into London, and its SAFO fund is registered with the U.K. regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
Source: www.coindesk.com. Adapted by NBTC.
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