Moody’s Ratings assigned its highest money market fund assessment to Fidelity International’s new tokenized liquidity fund on May 13, 2026, placing a top-tier Aaa-mf grade on the USD Digital Liquidity Fund SP, a digitally native vehicle designed for institutional investors.
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Key Takeaways:
- Moody’s assigned an Aaa-mf assessment to Fidelity International’s USD Digital Liquidity Fund on May 13, 2026.
- The fund, managed by $FIL Investments International, targets institutional investors with $34.5B in MMF AUM.
- The Ethereum-based tokenized fund plans to expand to ZKsync, with 24/7 redemptions subject to liquidity.
Fidelity’s Tokenized Money Market Fund Earns Top Moody’s Grade
The fund is structured as a segregated portfolio company domiciled in the Cayman Islands. $FIL Investments International, a subsidiary of $FIL Limited, serves as investment manager.
Moody’s said the Aaa-mf assessment reflects a view that the fund maintains a very strong ability to meet its capital preservation and liquidity objectives. The fund follows the same investment strategy as the Aaa-mf-assessed Fidelity Institutional Liquidity Fund plc, an Irish-domiciled low- volatility net asset value fund.
The fund issues tokenized units recorded initially on the Ethereum public blockchain, with plans to migrate subsequently to Zksync. Legal ownership of shares is maintained in an off-chain register held by Apex Fund Services (Malta) Limited, the transfer agent.
The fund’s weighted average maturity will stay below 60 days. At least 10% of assets must mature daily and 30% weekly. Overnight deposits will represent a significant portion of holdings, keeping exposure to market risk low.
Institutional investors can subscribe and redeem either onchain through select stablecoins or off-chain in U.S. dollars through standard banking rails. Moody’s noted this dual-track structure improves resilience in the event of blockchain outages.
The fund is designed to offer near-instant liquidity with 24/7 redemptions, subject to available liquidity. Redemption requests submitted outside market hours that cannot be met will be queued and processed once market hours resume. Redeeming investors may face a fee when liquidity is provided outside market hours.
Moody’s said activating either the queuing mechanism or the liquidity fee outside market hours will not lower the fund’s assessment, as both are disclosed in the prospectus. Any suspension of liquidity or liquidity fees applied during market hours, however, would result in a downgrade of the assessment.
The smart contracts governing the fund are permissioned, meaning only approved participants can interact with the tokens. Moody’s said this structure limits operational, governance, and compliance risks tied to blockchain activity.
Tokenization does not alter the fund’s underlying assets or regulatory framework. The legal ownership structure operates independently of the blockchain layer, so investor rights are not contingent on distributed ledger functionality.
$FIL Limited carries a Baa1 Stable credit rating from Moody’s. As of December 2025, $FIL Investments International managed $34.5 billion in money market fund assets under management.
Moody’s noted that modest shareholder concentration risk during the fund’s ramp-up period is expected to diminish as the fund grows and its investor base broadens.
The Aaa-mf designation is a money market fund assessment, distinct from a credit rating. Moody’s defines the designation as an opinion of investment quality for funds that principally invest in short-term fixed income obligations.
