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<p>Amundi, Europe’s largest asset manager with over €2.3 trillion in assets under management, has launched SAFO, a tokenized mutual fund built on Chainlink infrastructure in partnership with regulated digital asset firm Spiko, marking the firm’s first move from crypto-themed ETFs into native blockchain issuance of its own core financial products.</p><h2 id="what-safo-actually-is">What SAFO Actually Is</h2><p>The Stable Asset Fund On-chain invests primarily in short-term government bonds and high-quality money market instruments. The underlying asset class is deliberately conservative. The innovation is not what the fund holds but how it operates and who can access it.</p><p>SAFO offers round-the-clock transferability and near-instant settlement, removing the bank-hours constraint that governs traditional mutual fund operations. Institutional clients can subscribe to or redeem shares directly on-chain using stablecoins, bypassing several layers of traditional intermediary infrastructure.</p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>JUST IN: Europe's largest asset manager Amundi (€2.3T AUM) and <a href="https://twitter.com/Spiko_finance?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">@Spiko_finance</a> launch tokenized mutual fund SAFO powered by <a href="https://twitter.com/chainlink?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">@Chainlink</a>, offering 24/7 transferability and near-instant settlement. <a href="https://t.co/LYkEHgpJ5S" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">pic.twitter.com/LYkEHgpJ5S</a></p><p>— CoinDesk (@CoinDesk) <a href="https://twitter.com/CoinDesk/status/2034607032045580466?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">March 19, 2026</a></p></blockquote><p>The fund is launched under the French AMF regulatory framework and is fully compliant with EU financial standards. Regulatory compliance is built into the structure rather than retrofitted.</p><p>That combination of conservative underlying assets, 24/7 operational availability, direct on-chain access, and regulatory standing is precisely the package institutional investors have said they need before committing to tokenized fund products at scale.</p><h2 id="chainlink-s-role-in-the-infrastructure">Chainlink’s Role in the Infrastructure</h2><p>Chainlink provides two distinct functions within SAFO. The Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol handles secure data feeds and cross-chain compatibility, ensuring the fund can operate across different blockchain environments without introducing additional bridge risk. That infrastructure layer is what makes the 24/7 transferability operationally reliable rather than theoretically possible.</p><p>The second function is Proof of Reserve. Chainlink’s PoR allows investors to verify the underlying collateral backing the fund in real time, on-chain, without relying on periodic third-party audits. For institutional investors accustomed to monthly or quarterly reporting on fund composition, real-time verifiable reserves represent a meaningful transparency upgrade. It also removes a category of counterparty trust that traditional fund structures require.</p><h2 id="where-this-sits-in-the-institutional-wave">Where This Sits in the Institutional Wave</h2><p>SAFO does not arrive in isolation. BlackRock expanded its BUIDL fund on March 15. Fidelity announced a similar always-on treasury fund on March 17. Amundi’s launch on March 19 makes three major institutional asset managers moving into tokenized government debt infrastructure within a five-day window.</p><p>The tokenized government debt market has surpassed $1.8 billion in March 2026 according to industry estimates, driven by elevated interest rates and institutional demand for yield-bearing digital assets with low risk profiles. High rates make short-duration government bonds attractive as a base asset. Tokenization makes those bonds accessible in an on-chain format that integrates with the stablecoin and DeFi infrastructure institutions are increasingly building around.</p><div class="read-more tdi_7"><div class="td_module_flex td_module_flex_1 td_module_wrap td-animation-stack td-cpt-post td-module-exclusive"><div class="td-module-container"><div class="td-image-container"><div class="td-module-thumb"><a class="article row text-decoration-none" href="https://www.ethnews.com/nasdaq-gets-sec-approval-for-tokenized-equity-trading-u-s-stocks-are-going-on-chain/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"><span class="td-image-wrap"></span></a></div></div><div class="td-module-meta-info"><h3 class="entry-title td-module-title" id="a-href-https-www-ethnews-com-nasdaq-gets-sec-approval-for-tokenized-equity-trading-u-s-stocks-are-going-on-chain-rel-noopener-noreferrer-nofollow-nasdaq-gets-sec-approval-for-tokenized-equity-trading-u-s-stocks-are-going-on-chain-a"><a href="https://www.ethnews.com/nasdaq-gets-sec-approval-for-tokenized-equity-trading-u-s-stocks-are-going-on-chain/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Nasdaq Gets SEC Approval for Tokenized Equity Trading : U.S. Stocks Are Going On-Chain</a></h3></div></div></div></div><p>Amundi’s entry is structurally different from BlackRock and Fidelity in one respect. SAFO is issued under European regulatory jurisdiction rather than U.S. frameworks. That distinction matters for non-U.S. institutional investors who face compliance barriers when accessing American-domiciled tokenized products. A French AMF-compliant, EU-standard fund fills a gap in the institutional RWA landscape that the American launches do not address.</p><h2 id="what-distinguishes-this-from-amundi-s-prior-crypto-work">What Distinguishes This From Amundi’s Prior Crypto Work</h2><p>Amundi has previously offered crypto-themed ETFs, products that provide exposure to digital asset prices through traditional fund structures. SAFO is categorically different. It is not an ETF tracking a crypto index. It is a mutual fund natively issued on blockchain infrastructure, where the fund itself exists and operates on-chain rather than referencing on-chain assets from a traditional wrapper.</p><p>That distinction is the one the institutional market has been waiting for from a manager of Amundi’s scale. A €2.3 trillion asset manager issuing its own core financial products natively on blockchain removes a significant credibility barrier for other European institutions evaluating similar moves. The question of whether tokenized fund issuance is appropriate for serious asset managers has a different answer today than it did last week.</p><p>The post <a href="https://www.ethnews.com/amundi-launched-its-first-on-chain-mutual-fund-europes-largest-asset-manager-is-now-issuing-natively-on-blockchain/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Amundi Launched Its First On-Chain Mutual Fund: Europe’s Largest Asset Manager Is Now Issuing Natively on Blockchain</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.ethnews.com" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">ETHNews</a>.</p>

Amundi Launched Its First On-Chain Mutual Fund: Europe’s Largest Asset Manager Is Now Issuing Natively on Blockchain

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