The issuer layer is where the underlying claim originates. An asset manager wraps an exposure (a money market fund, a private credit fund, a Treasury portfolio, an alternative strategy) into a tokenised vehicle and partners with a tokenisation platform to mint the on-chain representation. For institutional tokenisation in Asia, the issuer layer is genuinely global: most named tokenised products in APAC distribution today come from US- or EU-headquartered asset managers using regional partners for distribution and custody. The work to watch is which managers cross the line from one-off pilots into multi-fund tokenised product lines.

What this layer does

An issuer in the tokenisation context is the legal entity that creates the tokenised vehicle and stands behind it. For a tokenised money market fund, the issuer is the asset management company that operates the underlying fund, the vehicle is the fund itself (typically an open-ended investment company structure), and the token is the digital representation of a share or unit. The legal status of the token, whether it is the operative record of ownership or a digital wrapper around an off-chain register, depends on the jurisdiction's tokenisation regime. See Foundations Chapter I, Part 3 for the jurisdictional split.

The issuer makes three structural decisions early. First, the legal wrapper, which depends on the target investor base (UCITS or AIFMD in Europe, 40 Act or 3(c)(7) in the US, VCC or unit trust in Singapore, Cayman SPC for offshore). Second, the tokenisation platform partner, which determines the network topology and the technology stack. Third, the custodian, which determines how the underlying assets are held and how on-chain transfers reconcile to off-chain records.

Why it matters

The issuer layer is where the commercial logic of tokenisation gets tested. A tokenised MMF that distributes to ten clients via a single platform is a pilot. A tokenised MMF that distributes to a thousand clients across multiple platforms with native cross-platform transfer is a product. Most named tokenised funds today are still in the first category. The transition into the second is what every issuer in this list is working on, and the institutions that get there first set the playbook for the rest.

The APAC angle is partly distribution and partly issuance. On distribution, tokenised products from BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, Janus Henderson, Apollo, and WisdomTree are increasingly available to APAC institutional investors via Singapore- and Hong Kong-licensed venues. On issuance, APAC-domiciled asset managers (Nomura Asset Management, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management, UBS Asset Management Hong Kong) are starting to launch their own tokenised vehicles, often using local tokenisation platforms (Kinexys, Progmat) or regional partners.

Named entities in this layer

Asset managers with material tokenisation activity tracked in the wiki:

• BlackRock. BUIDL on Securitize is the reference institutional tokenised MMF. Increasing APAC distribution.
• Franklin Templeton. FOBXX / BENJI is the longest-running tokenised MMF in production. Distributed in Singapore and Hong Kong.
• Janus Henderson. Anemoy collaboration on Centrifuge for tokenised CLOs and Treasuries. Sky / Grove allocator counterparty.
• Apollo. Tokenised credit fund (ACRED) at GSIB-allocator scale. APAC institutional distribution.
• WisdomTree. WisdomTree Prime / Connect tokenised funds, retail-grade tokenised products.
• Ondo Finance. OUSG (tokenised Treasuries) and USDY (tokenised yield-bearing dollar). Operates as both issuer and platform.

The issuer layer also overlaps with the bank-issuer category for tokenised deposits (JPMorgan / Kinexys BDA, DBS Token Services, the Japan megabank consortia behind Progmat). Those are tracked under the platform layer below since the bank operates both the issuance and the rail.

Open questions

• Will any APAC-headquartered asset manager publish a multi-fund tokenised product line at scale, or will the region remain primarily a distribution market for US and EU issuers?
• What share of the institutional MMF book moves on-chain by 2027? Public commentary from BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, and others suggests the answer is "more than today, less than a third"; concrete numbers are hard to pin.
• How do issuers handle the multi-network problem when a tokenised fund is issued across Ethereum mainnet, an L2 like Base, and a permissioned ledger like Canton? Native cross-network transfer remains rare in production.