Federated Hermes and Conduit Form APAC Tokenized Money Market Fund Alliance

Federated Hermes, Inc. (NYSE: FHI), the asset manager with $911.6 billion under management, said on September 1 that it has formed a strategic alliance with Singapore-based Conduit Digital Holdings to support the launch of a regulated tokenized money market fund distribution structure in Asia-Pacific. The announcement marks Federated Hermes’ first digital-assets initiative in the region and positions its flagship U.S. Prime Fund as the anchor product for a tokenized multicurrency offering.

How the tokenized structure works

Under the arrangement, a Conduit-managed investment fund will invest in the Federated Hermes Short-Term U.S. Prime Fund, giving holders of the Conduit fund’s shares tokenized exposure to the underlying portfolio. The Prime Fund is an actively managed, UCITS-authorized money market fund that invests in high-quality, U.S. dollar-denominated short-term debt such as commercial paper and certificates of deposit. Federated Hermes manages $676.9 billion in money market assets across a business with more than 50 years of money market innovation.

For investors and distributors, the structure is notable because it links a conventional, regulated money market vehicle to tokenized fund shares rather than creating a new product from scratch. That makes the launch part of a broader push to fit digital-asset infrastructure around established fund products and existing regulatory frameworks, which has become a recurring theme in institutional tokenization projects.

Federated Hermes’ broader tokenization push

The Conduit alliance extends a series of recent digital-asset initiatives at Federated Hermes, including tokenized access to three UCITS money market funds through the FCA-regulated Archax exchange and participation in an industry-wide mirrored-tokenization initiative. The firm also cites its first GENIUS Act-aligned money market fund. Kevin Barr, who was appointed Director of Digital Assets Product and Platform Strategy in May 2026, leads the firm’s approach to regulated digital assets and tokenization.

That sequence of launches suggests Federated Hermes is building a distribution model around tokenized access to money market exposure, while keeping the underlying portfolio management anchored in familiar fund structures. In practice, that matters because money market funds are widely used by institutional treasurers, cash managers, and other investors looking for short-term liquidity solutions, making them a natural starting point for tokenization efforts focused on operational efficiency and broader accessibility.

APAC expansion and institutional demand

Conduit Digital Holdings provides Monetary Authority of Singapore-regulated end-to-end tokenization infrastructure and a regional distribution network to the partnership. “Tokenized products represent a new and evolving way to engage with our clients, combining our investment expertise with Conduit’s MAS-regulated end-to-end tokenization capabilities and regional distribution network,” said Jim Roland, Federated Hermes’ Head of Business Development for Asia Pacific and Australia.

Conduit said the alliance is intended to do more than support settlement, pointing to collateral, multicurrency management, and AI agentic treasury systems as additional functions it wants to enable. “We are committed to unlocking the full utility of these tokens,” said Richard Schroder, Co-Founder and CEO of Conduit Digital Holdings.

The move comes amid a wider wave of institutional tokenized-fund launches, including Goldman Sachs and BNY Mellon’s money market fund tokenization and BounceBit’s launch of Franklin Templeton’s tokenized money market fund. That broader backdrop shows the APAC rollout is entering a market where large financial firms are already testing tokenized fund structures, especially around cash-management use cases and regulated distribution channels.