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BLOCKCHAIN LAB BRIEFING · TOKENISATION

Archax Holds the Interest. The Manager Did Not Move the Book.

Archax offers tokenised interests in money-market funds from five large managers, and it has moved a tokenised Canary HBR ETF on Hedera while US cash markets were shut. The token is a claim on what Archax holds. It is not the manager’s book.

Blockchain Lab8 October 20264 min readAll briefings

A rollout, not a migration

Fig. 01

Five names arrived over three years.
  1. 012023–Apr 2024abrdn money-market access on Hedera and Ethereum, then BlackRock ICS US Treasury.
  2. 02Nov 2024State Street, Fidelity International and LGIM, dated by Hedera’s case study.
  3. 03Jul–Sep 2025Lloyds FX collateral, then a pool of four funds in equal parts.
  4. 0427 Nov 2025A tokenised Canary HBR ETF transfers on Hedera. US markets are closed.

Each node is Archax adding a representation or a use. None of them is the manager moving its shareholder register onto Hedera.

Archax releases, 2024–2025; Hedera case study for the November 2024 dating.

01

What happened

Archax, the UK-regulated exchange, broker and custodian, has spent three years offering tokenised access to money-market funds, and in late 2025 it moved a tokenised Canary HBR ETF on Hedera outside US market hours. The managers’ names are real. The inference that each manager issued its fund natively on Hedera, or chose that network as its only infrastructure, is not in the documents.

The dated record runs from Archax’s own releases and from Hedera’s account of the same work. In 2023 Archax launched tokenised access to abrdn money-market funds on Hedera and on Ethereum. On 23 April 2024 it added the BlackRock ICS US Treasury money-market fund, and said the first transaction of those tokenised shares was completed on Hedera across the Ownera FinP2P network. Hedera’s case study dates a later expansion, to State Street, Fidelity International and Legal & General Investment Management, to November 2024. Fidelity International is not Fidelity Investments.

02

Why it matters

The legal object, where a primary document actually defines it, is a claim on Archax. On 21 February 2025 the HBAR Foundation said it had invested in Archax tokens representing shares in Fidelity International’s US dollar money-market fund. The same note says the tokens are claims against Archax for shares Archax holds, and are not a direct investment in the fund. A client can take exposure. The manager has not, on this evidence, launched a Hedera-native fund or moved the shareholder register onto the network.

The same caution covers the Canary instrument. Archax’s release of 4 December 2025 says it tokenised the Canary HBR ETF and facilitated a transaction on Hedera on 27 November 2025, while US markets were closed. That is a transfer of Archax’s tokenised instrument. It does not establish that subscriptions and redemptions of the underlying ETF were open, or that the ETF’s sponsor operated the trade.

Read the noun

Fig. 02

A claim against the distributor is not the fund.
  • The tokenA claim against Archax for shares Archax holds.Transferable on the rail Archax operates.
  • The fundStill the manager’s portfolio, on the manager’s terms.Not, on this evidence, issued natively on Hedera.

The HBAR Foundation wrote the legal character down for one Fidelity International token. The same shape should not be assumed away for the others, and it should not be inflated into them either.

HBAR Foundation, 21 February 2025.

03

The operating layer

Keep three balances apart, and do not add them. The shares Archax holds in the fund. The tokens Archax has issued against that holding. The assets of the ETF, which sit in the ETF. A pooled token is a fourth object. On 10 September 2025 Archax and the HBAR Foundation described a pool holding equal parts of money-market funds from Aberdeen, BlackRock, State Street and Legal & General. Fidelity International is not in that first basket.

Collateral is a stronger fact than a logo on a slide. On 14 July 2025 Lloyds Banking Group, Aberdeen Investments and Archax said tokenised units of an Aberdeen money-market fund, and tokenised UK gilts, had been used as collateral for foreign-exchange trades between Aberdeen and Lloyds. Archax issued, transferred and held the tokens on Hedera. That is use. It is one collaboration, not a statement that the managers have moved their funds onto the network.

04

What is verified

Archax’s 23 April 2024 release names the BlackRock ICS US Treasury fund and the earlier abrdn funds, and names both Hedera and Ethereum for the abrdn work. The HBAR Foundation’s February 2025 note states the claim-against-Archax structure for the Fidelity International tokens. The September 2025 pool note names four managers and equal parts. The July 2025 announcement names Lloyds, Aberdeen and Archax, the fund units, the gilts and the foreign-exchange use. Archax’s December 2025 release dates the Canary HBR transaction to 27 November 2025.

Archax’s own page for the BlackRock ICS US Treasury fund shows dealing on UK business days, a 16:00 UK cut-off to buy or sell, and operating hours from 09:00 to 17:30. Tokenised or traditional form is described as available T+0, subject to payment rails. An overnight token transfer is not that dealing day.

Hours the token does not repeal

Fig. 03

The BlackRock dealing page is still a UK business day.
  • 16:00 UKBuy and sell cut-off
  • 09:00–17:30Operating hours, UK business days
  • T+0Tokenised or traditional, subject to payment rails
  • 4Managers in the first pool, equal parts

These figures describe Archax’s access to one fund. They are not a valuation of the tokens, and they are not the ETF.

Archax, BlackRock ICS US Treasury fund page.

05

What remains unclear

Hedera’s case study is the source used here for dating the State Street, Fidelity International and LGIM additions to November 2024. A separate Archax release for that month was not recovered in a form this desk could quote line by line, so no day inside November is stated.

No primary document opened for this piece gives a current on-chain dollar value for the Canary token, or a single combined figure for the five managers. A number of that kind needs a dated supply and a valuation method. It is omitted. The ETF’s own assets, and any later inflow into the listed fund, are different measurements and are not substituted in.

06

The catch

Five household names on a tokenisation rail are five distribution facts, not five exclusive infrastructure partnerships. Archax can transfer a claim it has issued, against an asset it holds, including when the underlying market is shut. The manager still runs the fund. The dealing desk still has hours.

Representation is the product. Confusing it with the manager’s book is how a custody arrangement gets narrated as a migration.

WATCH

What builders should watch

  1. 01Whether a new token is documented as a claim on the distributor’s holding, or as a share the manager itself issued.
  2. 02Whether a transfer outside market hours is accompanied by an open subscription and redemption desk.
  3. 03Whether collateral use names the parties, the asset and the trade, rather than only the logos.

BOTTOM LINE

The token is Archax’s claim on what Archax holds. It is not the manager’s book, and a closed market is not a 24-hour dealing desk.

Sources

The documents are below. A chart is a reading of those documents, not a recommendation to buy or sell anything.

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