The September issue of our flagship Money Fund Intelligence newsletter, which will be sent to subscribers Monday morning, features the articles: "Money Fund Assets' Blow Past $7.5 Trillion; on Way to $8.0?," which reviews the latest surge in MMF assets; "BNY Dreyfus, Goldman Both Launch Stablecoin Reserves," which reviews the new filings for Stablecoin Reserves money funds; and, "JPM on Offshore MMFs; European MFs Record $1.5T," which covers a recent update on money funds in Ireland. We also will send out our MFI XLS spreadsheet Monday a.m., and we've updated our Money Fund Wisdom database with 8/31/25 data. Our September Money Fund Portfolio Holdings are scheduled to ship on Wednesday, Sept. 10, and our September Bond Fund Intelligence is scheduled to go out on Monday, Sept. 15.
MFI's "Assets" article says, "Money market mutual fund assets surged in August, breaking the $7.5 trillion level for the first time ever earlier in the month and hitting a record $7.608 billion at month-end. They continue to jump in September, rising by $60.6 billion in the first 4 days of the new month. Year-to-date, money fund assets have increased by $489.1 billion (6.8%), and over the past year assets have increased by $1.018 trillion, or 15.4%.
It continues, "MMF asset totals first crossed the $7.0 trillion threshold last November, and they’ve since marked a series of new highs: $7.1 trillion on Dec. 3, $7.2 trillion on Jan. 2, $7.3 trillion on Feb. 26, $7.4 trillion on May 30, $7.5 trillion on Aug. 4, and $7.6 trillion on Aug. 29."
We write in our "Stablecoin Reserves" profile, "Over the past month, both BNY and Goldman Sachs filed to launch Stablecoin Reserves funds, following in the footsteps of BlackRock's Circle Reserves. A filing for BNY Dreyfus Stablecoin Reserves Fund tells us, "The fund pursues its investment objective by investing in (i) U.S. Treasury bills, notes, or bonds (collectively, U.S. Treasury securities), (ii) overnight repurchase agreements collateralized solely by U.S. Treasury securities, and (iii) cash. The fund is a money fund subject to the maturity, quality, liquidity and diversification requirements of Rule 2a-7 under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, and seeks to maintain a stable share price of $1.00. The U.S. Treasury securities in which the fund invests have a maturity of 93 days or less."
It states, "BNY's N1-A explains, 'The fund is a 'government money market fund,' as that term is defined in Rule 2a-7, and as such is required to invest at least 99.5% of its total assets in securities issued or guaranteed as to principal and interest by the U.S. government or its agencies or instrumentalities, repurchase agreements collateralized solely by cash and/or government securities, and cash. The fund seeks to enter into repurchase agreements that present minimal credit risk, based on an assessment by Dreyfus, a division of Mellon Investments Corporation (Dreyfus), the fund's sub adviser, of the counterparty's credit quality and capacity to meet its financial obligations, among other factors. Shares of the fund are intended to serve as reserves backing outstanding payment stablecoins. The fund does not invest in stablecoins.'"
Our "JPM on Offshore MMFs" piece says, "J.P. Morgan Securities published a brief titled, 'A Closer Look Into Offshore USD MMFs,' which tells us, 'While we often focus on onshore MMFs given their colossal size ($7.3tn), we would be remiss not to talk about offshore USD MMFs which also play a significant role in the money markets. Over the past three years, much like their onshore counterparts, offshore USD MMFs have grown significantly in AUM, increasing by $257bn to $796bn and $53bn YTD. However, unlike their onshore counterparts, much of the AUMs reside in prime MMFs (LVNAVs and VNAVs) as opposed to government MMFs (CNAVs). As a result, a substantial portion of their holdings (61%) are credit-based products (CP/CDs) vs. rates (39%).'"
The article continues, "JPM explains, 'Even so, the amount of cash allocated to rates products such as T-bills and repos is not insignificant. In June, combined T-bill and repo holdings among offshore government and prime funds totaled $240bn, not too far off from its peak (~$260bn) in late 2024.... Of that amount, $163bn were in repo and $77bn in T-bills as offshore MMFs reduced their T-bill exposure during the first half of the year. As T-bill paydowns persisted, offshore MMFs decreased their bill holdings by $44bn over 1H25 and by $71bn from their local peak in November of last year. As a result, offshore MMFs rotated into repo. During the first half of the year, offshore MMFs increased their repo exposure by $35bn, with over half of this increase driven by dealer repo.'"
MFI also includes the News brief, "MF Average Yield Dips Below 4.0%; Crane 100 Down to 4.10%." It says, "Money fund yields inched lower in August ahead of an expected cut in rates by the Fed later this month. The Crane Money Fund Average, an average of all (722) taxable money funds tracked by Crane Data, fell to 3.99% from 4.01%, the first time this number has been below 4.0% since 12/31/22. Our Crane 100 Money Fund Index inched lower to 4.10%. (Yields are simple, net and annualized and averages are simple and not asset-weighted.)
Another News brief, "WisdomTree Govt MM Digital Fund Changes to Treasury," tells readers, "WisdomTree Government Money Market Digital Fund (WTGXX) filed to change its name to WisdomTree Treasury Money Market Digital Fund. The Prospectus Supplement says, 'Effective on or about Nov. 1, 2025, the Fund's name, non-fundamental investment policy, and principal investment strategies will be revised. Why the Changes: The impetus for the changes is to ensure the Fund's eligible investor base includes payment stablecoin issuers seeking to comply with newly enacted U.S. legislation, namely the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act (the 'GENIUS Act'). (For more, see our 2/26/24 News, 'WisdomTree Launches Digital Govt MMF.')"
A third News brief titled, "JPM Says T-Bills Back," states, "J.P. Morgan's 'Short-Term Market Outlook & Strategy' featured a brief titled, 'The bills are back in town.' It explains, 'We think repo markets will remain orderly for three reasons. First, MMF AUMs are still rising and we expect this to continue into year-end, allowing investment in T-bills without reallocating from repo. We think MMF AUMs can reach $7.6-7.7tn by year-end, and there are many other T-bill liquidity buyers, some of which do not engage in repo, that can help take down the bill supply. Second, bank portfolios are underinvested in repo relative to history, with their repo exposure at $710bn or below 3% of total assets, vs. $850bn or ~5% of total assets in mid-2019.... Third, the SRF remains available as a source of liquidity, and we think primary dealers will have no problem using it when the economics make sense.'"
A sidebar, "Paper on MF Vulnerabilities," says, "The Journal of Banking & Finance published a study titled, 'Money Market Funds Vulnerabilities and Systemic Liquidity Crises.' It explains, 'Despite regulatory reforms, Money Market Funds (MMFs) experienced severe stress in March 2020, following large redemptions and dislocations in short term markets. We provide a model showing the tradeoffs between liquidity and capital preservation services offered by MMFs. We show that in a crisis, MMFs cannot provide liquidity and capital preservation to investors at the same time. As a result, investors have an incentive to run preemptively. We calibrate our model on data from USD MMFs and find that most funds would have been unable to meet redemptions above 30% mid-March 2020. Unless short-term funding markets are made resilient in times of stress, MMFs will face similar challenges during future liquidity crises.'"
Our September MFI XLS, with August 31 data, shows total assets rose $129.9 billion to a record high $7.608 trillion, after increasing $69.0 billion in July, $10.1 billion in June and jumping $90.3 billion in May. MMFs decreased $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 and $155.2 billion last September.
Our broad Crane Money Fund Average 7-Day Yield was down 2 bps at 3.99%, and our Crane 100 Money Fund Index (the 100 largest taxable funds) was down 2 bps at 4.10% in August. On a Gross Yield Basis (7-Day) (before expenses are taken out), the Crane MFA and the Crane 100 averaged 4.36% and 4.37%. Charged Expenses averaged 0.37% and 0.26% for the Crane MFA and the Crane 100. (We'll revise expenses once we upload the SEC's Form N-MFP data for 8/31/25 on Tuesday, 9/9.) The average WAM (weighted average maturity) for the Crane MFA was 41 days (up 2 days) and the Crane 100 WAM was up 1 day from the previous month at 42 days. (See our Crane Index or craneindexes.xlsx history file for more on our averages.)
