The August issue of our flagship Money Fund Intelligence newsletter, which was sent to subscribers Thursday morning, features the articles: "BNY Portal Offers Tokenized Shares of 5 Major Managers," which reviews a recent release from LiquidityDirect; "ICD's Tory Hazard on Portals, Products & Tradeweb Buyout," which interview the Head of ICD Portal; and, "Stablecoin, Tokenization All Over Q2'25 Earnings Calls," which quotes from the latest earnings calls. We also sent out our MFI XLS spreadsheet Thursday a.m., and we've updated our Money Fund Wisdom database with 7/31/25 data. Our August Money Fund Portfolio Holdings are scheduled to ship on Monday, August 11, and our August Bond Fund Intelligence is scheduled to go out on Thursday, August 14.
MFI's "BNY Portal" article says, "A press release titled, 'BNY and Goldman Sachs Launch Tokenized Money Market Funds Solution' explains, 'The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation ('BNY') (BK) ... and the Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (GS) ... announced a collaborative initiative by which BNY will employ blockchain technology developed by Goldman Sachs to maintain a record of customers' ownership of select Money Market Funds (MMFs), in a significant step towards enhancing the utility and transferability of existing MMF shares. This combined solution marks the first time in the U.S. that fund managers have enabled subscription for shares of their MMFs via BNY's LiquidityDirect and Digital Asset platforms, the corresponding value of which will be represented through mirrored record tokenization utilizing GS DAP. BlackRock, BNY Investments Dreyfus, Federated Hermes, Fidelity Investments, and Goldman Sachs Asset Management will participate in the initial launch.'"
It continues, "Laide Majiyagbe, Global Head of Liquidity, Financing and Collateral at BNY, comments, 'As the financial system transitions toward a more digital, real-time architecture, BNY is committed to enabling scalable and secure solutions that shape the future of finance. Mirrored tokenization of MMF shares is a first step in this transition, and we are proud to be at the forefront of this first-of-its-kind initiative. Our collaboration with Goldman Sachs Digital Assets highlights our role as a trusted bridge between traditional finance and emerging technologies -- empowering clients to navigate this transformation with confidence.'"
We write in our "ICD profile, "This month, MFI interviews Managing Director & Head of ICD Tory Hazard, a year after the company's buyout by Tradeweb. We discuss the portal marketplace, corporate investor issues and the latest technology initiatives with one of the industry's biggest online money fund trading portals. Our Q&A follows."
It states, "MFI: Tell us a little about your history. Hazard: ICD was founded in 2003 as the first independent investment platform focused solely on corporate treasury. From the beginning, the goal was to give treasury teams better access, transparency, and control over their short-term investments. I joined ICD in 2009, to help grow and scale the business. At the time, the idea of a digital platform for institutional money funds was still gaining traction, and it's been exciting to be part of shaping that evolution."
Our "Earnings Call" piece says, "Stablecoin and tokenization questions and comments littered bank and financial institutions' second quarter earnings calls over the past 3 weeks. We can't fit them all here, but we try and excerpt from the big ones. We also include some broad comments on cash."
The article continues, "BlackRock Chairman & CEO Larry Fink says, 'A lot of firms got out of the cash business after the financial crisis when fee waivers were in place during a sustained period of low rates. But we recognize a simple thing. Every client needs to hold cash. Cash management has been the first entry point for many of our clients, who have gone on to build large mandates with BlackRock. Our cash AUM is nearly $1 trillion.'"
MFI also includes the News brief, "Assets Climb to Another Record in July. Our MFI Daily asset series broke the $7.5 trillion barrier for the first time on August 4. (Assets rose again on 8/5 to a record $7.507 trillion.) Our MFI XLS monthly series also rose to a record $7.488 trillion in July. ICI's smaller weekly series shows assets at a near record $7.076 trillion as of last week."
Another News brief, "J.P. Morgan, Simplify File for Money Market ETFs," says, "An article from 'The Daily Upside,' titled, '`JPMorgan Files to Launch Money Market ETF,' tells us, 'The bank applied last month for SEC approval of the actively managed JPMorgan 100% US Treasury Securities Money Market ETF.... The move, along with recent money market ETF launches by Schwab and BlackRock, shows how issuers are capitalizing on investors' appetite for lower-risk options ... and ETF hype. A separate press release 'Introducing the Simplify Government Money Market ETF (SBIL),' tells us, 'Simplify Asset Management... announced a further expansion of its lineup of income-focused ETFs with the launch of the Simplify Government Money Market ETF (SBIL).'"
A third News brief titled, "Reuters Says Slew of T-Bills Coming, tells us, 'A slew of T-bills coming? Money market funds say 'bring 'em on'.' The article explains, 'More than $1 trillion in U.S. short-term bills are expected to flood the market over the next 1-1/2 years following the increase in the debt ceiling, as the Treasury replenishes its diminished cash balance.... There is, however, no shortage of buyers, with money market funds leading the way. Armed with a record $7.4 trillion in assets as of July 1, money funds, which invest in short-term, low-risk securities such as Treasury bills and repurchase agreements, or repos, are ready to take on more supply.'"
A sidebar, "EFAMA's European Fact Book," says, "EFAMA, the European Fund and Asset Management Association, recently published its annual 'Fact Book,' which contains a section on 'Money Market Fund UCITS,' explains, 'Net assets of money market funds (MMFs) ended the year above EUR 2 tn. In 2024, net sales rose to an absolute record (EUR 226 bn), beating the previous record of pandemic year 2020 (EUR 215 bn). The surge was largely driven by an inverted yield curve, which persisted for much of 2024.... Additionally, these strong inflows suggest that some investors opted for MMFs as a cash alternative, maintaining a wait-and-see approach to weather geopolitical uncertainties."
Our August MFI XLS, with July 31 data, shows total assets rose $69.0 billion to a record high $7.488 trillion, after increasing $10.1 billion in June, jumping $90.3 billion in May, but decreasing $26.6 billion in April and $4.6 billion in March. Assets increased $90.4 billion in February, $47.9 billion in January and $113.0 billion in December. Assets jumped $196.1 billion in November, $89.9 billion in October, $155.2 billion in September and $105.6 billion last August.
Our broad Crane Money Fund Average 7-Day Yield was up 1 bp at 4.02%, and our Crane 100 Money Fund Index (the 100 largest taxable funds) was unchanged at 4.12% in July. On a Gross Yield Basis (7-Day) (before expenses are taken out), the Crane MFA and the Crane 100 averaged 4.39% and 4.39%. Charged Expenses averaged 0.37% and 0.27% for the Crane MFA and the Crane 100. (We'll revise expenses once we upload the SEC's Form N-MFP data for 7/31/25 on Friday, 8/8.) The average WAM (weighted average maturity) for the Crane MFA was 39 days (up 1 day) and the Crane 100 WAM was up 2 days from the previous month at 40 days. (See our Crane Index or craneindexes.xlsx history file for more on our averages.)
