U.K. Pension Giant L&G Looks to Enter Crypto's Tokenization Space
London-based L&G, which has $1.5 trillion in assets, is evaluating ways to join other big traditional players like BlackRock, Franklin Templeton and Abrdn that are offering blockchain-based money-market funds and the like.
Updated Oct 21, 2024, 8:45 a.m. Published Oct 21, 2024, 8:43 a.m.
Legal & General (L&G), the London-headquartered pension and investment management firm with $1.5 trillion in assets under management, is plotting an entrance into the blockchain-based tokenization space that's growing popular among finance giants.
Tokenization – or the representation of conventional assets like U.S. Treasuries-backed money-market funds via tokens on a blockchain – has become popular among traditional finance firms. That accelerated after the arrival of BlackRock, the largest asset manager in the world, on the scene with its BUIDL fund on the Ethereum blockchain. Others are available from Franklin Templeton, State Street and Abrdn.
“We are evaluating ways to make the Legal & General Investment Management Liquidity funds available in tokenized format,” said Ed Wicks, global head of trading at Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM), when asked about the firm’s plans via email.
“Digitization of the funds industry is key to improving efficiency, reducing cost and making a broad range of investment solutions available to a wider range of investors. We look forward to continued progress in this space,” Wicks said.
L&G’s dalliance with blockchain technology stretches back to 2019, when the insurer said it planned to use the managed blockchain system from Amazon Web Services (AWS) to manage and record bulk annuities for its insurance business.
LGIM is the asset management arm of L&G.
Ian Allison
Ian Allison is a senior reporter at CoinDesk, focused on institutional and enterprise adoption of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. Prior to that, he covered fintech for the International Business Times in London and Newsweek online. He won the State Street Data and Innovation journalist of the year award in 2017, and was runner up the following year. He also earned CoinDesk an honourable mention in the 2020 SABEW Best in Business awards. His November 2022 FTX scoop, which brought down the exchange and its boss Sam Bankman-Fried, won a Polk award, Loeb award and New York Press Club award. Ian graduated from the University of Edinburgh. He holds ETH.
Will Canny
Will Canny is an experienced market reporter with a demonstrated history of working in the financial services industry. He's now covering the crypto beat as a finance reporter at CoinDesk. He owns more than $1,000 of SOL.
