The transformation of money market funds

Money market funds are entering a structural transformation in which digital distribution, tokenisation and modernised market infrastructure will become key competitive advantages.

• US MMF assets exceeded $8.0 trillion on 1 December 2025 after rising by $954 billion during the year, reaching $8.44 trillion by April 2026; European assets exceed €2 trillion.
• Because yields are tightly clustered, with only a handful of basis points separating the top and bottom quartiles, platform integration, transparency and treasury-system connectivity increasingly differentiate MMF offerings.
• The article classifies MMF portals into three generations: stand-alone systems in the early 2000s, multi-fund platforms in the 2010s, and API-driven systems with automated settlement, cash sweeps and TMS connectivity from the 2020s onward.
• Tokenised MMFs could enable 24/7/365 trading, near-instant blockchain settlement, yield calculated to the second and daily distribution, compared with market-hours dealing and mostly end-of-day processing for traditional funds.
• Adoption remains limited: tokenised treasury and MMF assets were $7.4 billion in August 2025 versus $7.96 trillion for traditional MMFs, while 23% of IMMFA members cited regulatory uncertainty and another 23% cited insufficient market readiness as barriers.

Takeaway: Investors should view technology and connectivity as increasingly important to cash-management efficiency, but tokenisation remains constrained by regulation, infrastructure integration, skills shortages and unresolved public-versus-private blockchain trade-offs.