One year ago, we wrote, "Goldman Sachs: Summer of Stablecoin; FT: Banks Lobby to Block Interest," which cited Goldman Sachs' piece that coined the term, "`Stablecoin Summer." They wrote last year, "It's been the summer of stablecoins," and asked, "Does the stablecoin summer have staying power?" At the time, the GENIUS Act had just established a federal regulatory framework for payment stablecoins, Circle had recently gone public and major financial firms were exploring their own stablecoin initiatives." (Note: Register soon for our European Money Fund Symposium show, which will be held in just under a month, Sept. 24-25, 2026 in Paris, France!)
By the time Goldman declared this "stablecoin summer," money fund managers were already moving quickly into the stablecoin "reserve" business. On Aug. 13, 2025, we wrote, "Goldman Files to Launch Stablecoin Reserves Fund; Circle Q2 Earnings," after Goldman Sachs Asset Management filed for a government money fund designed to invest "only in certain eligible reserve assets" permitted for payment stablecoin issuers under the GENIUS Act. Just a week later, our Aug. 20 story, "BNY Dreyfus to Launch Stablecoin Reserves Fund; Joins Goldman, Circle," reported that BNY would become the third manager with a money fund dedicated primarily to stablecoin reserves. Its filing said, "Shares of the fund are intended to serve as reserves backing outstanding payment stablecoins."
One year later, the answer to Goldman's question appears to be yes -- at least for the money fund industry. What was still a niche business in the summer of 2025, with one established fund and a growing collection of filings and plans, has developed into a small but identifiable stablecoin-reserve money fund category. In our Nov. 14 story, we said, "BNY Stablecoin Reserves Goes Live; ICI: Assets Eke Out Record $7.5T." BNY Investments' Stephanie Pierce commented, "Cash is the cornerstone of the digital asset ecosystem." State Street, Fidelity and other managers subsequently filed for or launched GENIUS-aligned government money funds aimed specifically at stablecoin issuers.
State Street Investment Management announced its State Street Stablecoin Reserves Money Market Fund in June, calling it a Rule 2a-7 government MMF "designed specifically for the unique needs of stablecoin issuers." SSIM President and CEO Yie-Hsin Hung commented, "A clear framework has been established for how stablecoin reserves can be invested." Anchorage Digital, an initial investor in the fund, added, "Stablecoins are quickly becoming core financial infrastructure." State Street said the fund was designed and built to comply with the GENIUS Act and named State Street Bank and Anchorage as its initial investors.
Fidelity Investments also entered the business with the Fidelity Reserves Digital Fund (FYMXX), which launched June 15. Its prospectus says fund shares are expected to be held primarily by stablecoin issuers as reserve assets backing their tokens. Fidelity also highlights a new risk for the category, explaining, "Fund assets are therefore expected to fluctuate depending on the creation of additional stablecoins or the redemption of outstanding stablecoins." The filing warns that rapid or unexpected stablecoin redemptions could in turn affect the fund's liquidity and portfolio management.
Our Aug. 5 story, "Stablecoin Reserves Recap by ignites; BlackRock Tokenizes Offshore MFs," highlights how quickly the field has filled out. Ignites wrote that traditional asset managers were rolling out a 'wave of government money market funds tailored specifically to stablecoin reserves,' including products from Morgan Stanley, State Street, BNY and Goldman Sachs. Crane Data showed State Street's stablecoin reserve fund with approximately $120 million as of late July, followed by Goldman Sachs with $104 million, BNY Dreyfus with $51 million and Morgan Stanley with $5 million. Together, the four funds held roughly $280 million.
The pipeline is broader still. Federated Hermes introduced its MMR Digital Treasury Fund Reserve Shares, BNY filed for an on-chain Dreyfus liquidity fund and Invesco filed for the Invesco Stablecoin Reserves Onchain Fund. Our July 1 Link of the Day, "Yahoo on Invesco Stablecoin Reserves," noted that Invesco had joined a growing group of traditional liquidity managers positioning money funds as stablecoin reserve infrastructure.
BlackRock pushed the stablecoin-reserve and tokenized-MMF themes closer together earlier this month. Our Aug. 4 story, "BlackRock Launches BRSRV Tokenized Money Fund; Aviva Tokenized USD," covered the BlackRock Daily Reinvestment Stablecoin Reserve Vehicle, or BRSRV, alongside an on-chain share class of the BlackRock Select Treasury Based Liquidity Fund. Jon Steel, Global Head of Product and Platform for BlackRock Cash Management, comments, "As demand grows for high-quality reserve assets to support stablecoins and other tokenized financial products, these funds provide clients with additional choice." BRSRV can be used for digital-asset purposes including "stablecoin reserve management," and the investment strategies of both funds are intended to qualify as eligible reserve assets under the GENIUS Act.
Stablecoin reserve MMFs and tokenized MMFs are related, but they are not the same product. Reserve MMFs are designed to hold eligible assets on behalf of stablecoin issuers -- BNY's filing explicitly noted that its fund "does not invest in stablecoins." Tokenized MMFs instead place fund shares or ownership records on blockchain infrastructure. Increasingly, however, the two categories are converging as managers seek to make money fund shares usable for settlement, reserves and collateral.
One question from last summer remains unresolved: How much new Treasury demand will stablecoin growth actually create? Goldman's 2025 analysis argued that "Inflows from money market funds would have the smallest net impact" on safe-asset demand because government MMFs already invest overwhelmingly in Treasuries and other government securities. Money moving from MMFs into stablecoins could therefore shift the holder of the underlying safe assets without meaningfully increasing aggregate demand, though it could alter demand between Treasury bills and repo.
The Brookings Institution revisited that same question in its new paper, "Stablecoins After GENIUS: Private Money, Public Debt, and the Global Dollar," which we covered yesterday. Brookings writes, "The USD stablecoin market has grown rapidly but remains small." Total outstanding balances reached about $270 billion in June 2026, up from $24 billion in 2020. Brookings says strong stablecoin growth could substantially increase demand for Treasury bills, but stresses that the source of the growth matters: If assets migrate from MMFs into stablecoins, money funds would sell some of their Treasury holdings and dampen the net increase in demand. It estimates first-round Treasury bill demand under various stablecoin-growth scenarios could range from $400 billion to $2.3 trillion by 2030.
For all the activity, dedicated stablecoin reserve MMFs (and stablecoins) remain tiny compared with the broader money fund business. The four reserve funds highlighted by Ignites held only about $280 million combined in late July, versus more than $8 trillion across U.S. money market funds. (Circle Reserve Fund, or USDXX, totals $60.7 billion.) For now, the launches look less like a meaningful source of industrywide asset growth than an effort by managers to establish infrastructure and market position ahead of potential stablecoin growth.
For more on Stablecoins and Stablecoin Reserve funds, see these Crane Data News stories: "Brookings Publishes Paper on Stablecoins After Genius: Tradeoffs, Risks" (8/24/26), "Stablecoin Reserves Recap by ignites; BlackRock Tokenizes Offshore MFs" (8/5/26), "BlackRock Launches BRSRV Tokenized Money Fund; Aviva Tokenized USD" (8/4/26), "Yahoo on Invesco Stablecoin Reserves" (7/1/26), "Fidelity Reserves Digital Fund Goes Live" (6/23/26), "State Street Stablecoin Reserves Goes Live" (6/17/26), "Federated MMR Digital Treasury Fund" (6/10/26), "Fidelity Files for Reserves Digital Fund, 5th Stablecoin Reserve MMF" (3/23/26), "BNY Stablecoin Reserves Goes Live; ICI: Assets Eke Out Record $7.5T" (11/14/25), "Goldman Sachs: Summer of Stablecoin; FT: Banks Lobby to Block Interest" (8/26/25), "BNY Dreyfus to Launch Stablecoin Reserves Fund; Joins Goldman, Circle" (8/20/25) and "Goldman Files to Launch Stablecoin Reserves Fund; Circle Q2 Earnings" (8/13/25).
