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# Tokenised funds need a settlement layer, not another pilot
- URL: https://www.backdoor.news/en/tokenised-funds-need-a-settlement-layer-not-another-pilot/
- Published: 2026-10-13T08:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-12T18:04:38.000Z
- Description: Without settlement money on the same infrastructure, tokenisation remains a technical demonstration.
- Author: Grégory Raymond
- Tags: Finance, #tribune, #en, #invite, #expert-thomas-keller-en, #pair-t4

*Demonstration op-ed. The author, the asset manager and the situations described are fictional.*

Hardly a month goes by without an asset manager announcing the tokenisation of a money market or bond fund. The press releases look alike: a first, a chosen blockchain, a technology partner, a handful of institutional investors. Then, more often than not, nothing. Assets stay modest and secondary market volumes are close to zero.

## The problem is not the token

Representing a fund unit as a token is technically well understood. What is missing is the other leg of the transaction. For a tokenised unit to change hands in seconds, payment has to take place on the same infrastructure at the same time. Today, in most projects, the token moves on a blockchain while the money goes through the usual banking channels, with their delays and cut-off times.

The result is a paradox: a more modern register, but a settlement cycle that has not changed. Investors have no reason to prefer the tokenised version.

## Three options, none of them simple

There are three routes. Regulated stablecoins offer money available around the clock, but many institutions are reluctant to hold a private issuer’s liability to settle securities. Tokenised bank deposits keep deposit protection, but remain limited to the issuing bank’s clients. Wholesale central bank money on a shared ledger would be the most robust solution, but its timetable remains uncertain.

## Stop the isolated pilots

Rather than multiplying experiments fund by fund, the market would do better to focus on interoperability between these three options and on a clear framework for their use in settlement. Until that layer is in place, every new pilot will add a press release without adding a market.