Baillie Gifford records UK bond fund on Ethereum, Solana

Baillie Gifford has recorded ownership of a UK-regulated bond fund on the public blockchains Ethereum and Solana. The firm, which manages more than £286 billion, describes the product as a native tokenized fund issued through a UK-authorised OEIC structure and viewable on-chain at any time.

BNY provides tokenization and wallet infrastructure for the fund and NatWest Trustee and Depositary Services serves as depositary. Chainlink is involved to provide amplification and oracle services for the issuance.

Under the native issuance model the blockchain entries are presented as part of the fund’s ownership register and the token records investor holdings directly. That differs from a wrapper model, where a blockchain token represents access to a fund while the legally decisive register remains with the traditional fund administrator.

Regulatory context for the setup is provided by the UK Financial Conduct Authority’s policy statement PS26/7, published on April 30, which explains how authorised fund managers may use distributed ledger technology within the existing authorised fund framework.

Several operational and legal questions remain to be demonstrated in live conditions. These include legal finality of on-chain entries, controls over eligible holders, procedures for failed or mistaken transfers, wallet loss and recovery processes, sanctions screening, timing and mechanics of redemptions, and whether on-chain entries are enforceable against the fund under stress. It is not yet established whether on-chain fund units will be widely accepted as collateral or whether peer-to-peer secondary trading will function around the clock.

Industry pilots have previously tested automated subscription and redemption flows, transfer-agent workflows and integration between traditional fund systems and blockchain platforms. Baillie Gifford’s issuance places the ownership record on public-chain infrastructure while involving regulated depositary, custody and tokenization service providers.

Future disclosures and operational data are expected to show whether secondary transfer mechanics work in practice, how quickly and reliably redemptions settle, how the fund handles recovery from lost wallets or erroneous transfers, and whether other market participants accept the on-chain register for settlement and collateral.