Federated Hermes Plans Tokenised Fund Shares via Prometheum Partnership

Federated Hermes, the Pittsburgh-based asset manager overseeing $911 billion, has announced plans to issue its first tokenised fund share classes in early 2027, partnering with New York-based digital securities infrastructure provider Prometheum to make the products accessible through traditional brokerage accounts and financial advisers.

What distinguishes this initiative from the firm’s earlier blockchain work is the shift to direct issuance. Federated Hermes had previously collaborated with Archax, Goldman Sachs, and Conduit Digital on arrangements where third parties created tokenised representations of its conventional fund holdings. Now the firm intends to issue tokenised share classes itself, a structural change that gives it a more direct role in how its products sit on blockchain infrastructure. Kevin Barr, the firm’s director of digital asset products and platform, who joined from BNY in May after 15 years there, told CoinDesk that money market funds are the probable starting point given the firm’s large liquidity-management franchise.

Prometheum will supply regulated brokerage, custody, and clearing services for the venture. Federated Hermes has not yet identified which specific funds will be tokenised or which blockchains will be used. The partnership places the firm alongside BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, JPMorgan, and New York Life Insurance Company in pursuing blockchain-based versions of traditional fund products. Citi has projected the tokenised securities market could reach $5.5 trillion by 2030, a figure that continues to draw attention from large asset managers weighing the operational case for on-chain settlement, automated recordkeeping, and round-the-clock asset mobility.