According to a report by CoinDesk via ChainCatcher, Scottish asset manager Baillie Gifford (founded over 118 years ago) and global custody giant BNY jointly announced on Monday the launch of a tokenized fixed income fund — the Baillie Gifford Enhanced Yield Fund (BAGEY). The fund is deployed simultaneously on Ethereum and Solana public blockchains, denominated in USD, and operates under the UK regulatory framework as an Open-Ended Investment Company (OEIC).
Fund Structure and Target Investors
BAGEY is available to eligible investors in the UK, Switzerland, and the Cayman Islands, offering an actively managed portfolio of short-duration corporate bonds with a current yield of approximately 7%. Unlike most tokenized products, Baillie Gifford’s Head of Digital Assets Theo Golden emphasized that BAGEY is not a traditional fund wrapped in a token shell but a fund issued directly on-chain. The blockchain itself serves as the register of entitlement, with investors holding shares directly and enjoying direct recourse rights.
Infrastructure and Industry Significance
BNY will provide tokenization and wallet infrastructure for the fund, while NatWest Trustee and Depositary Services acts as the fund’s custodian. The Global Head of Investor Solutions at BNY stated that this issuance marks the shift of tokenization from concept to real-world application, with regulated fund structures evolving toward a more digital and interconnected market. This collaboration demonstrates a deep partnership between traditional asset management and custodians on blockchain, setting a new compliance precedent for the tokenized asset market.