Europe's largest asset manager Amundi, overseeing €2.3 trillion in assets, has officially launched the SAFO tokenized investment fund worth $100 million. The product operates simultaneously on the Ethereum and Stellar blockchains, offering institutional investors round-the-clock access to money markets through smart contracts and APIs.
How the SAFO Fund Works
The Spiko Amundi Overnight Swap Fund (SAFO) is structured as a sub-fund of SPIKO SICAV under French law. In essence, it is a money market instrument: the fund is fully backed by total return swaps with leading banks and generates returns above standard risk-free benchmarks while maintaining overnight liquidity.
SAFO is available in four currencies — euro, US dollar, British pound, and Swiss franc. The minimum entry threshold is just one unit of the respective currency, making the instrument accessible even to smaller institutional participants. Shares can be bought and sold around the clock without being tied to trading sessions, as is customary in traditional equity markets.
Blockchain Infrastructure and Chainlink's Role
Fund shares are registered directly on the Ethereum and Stellar blockchains, ensuring full transparency and enabling round-the-clock transfers between participants. The Chainlink oracle network is responsible for publishing the net asset value (NAV) on-chain in real time. This means any protocol or market participant can automatically access the current share price without intermediaries.
The division of roles in the project follows institutional standards: Amundi serves as the delegated investment manager, CACEIS bank handles depositary and administrative functions, and the Spiko platform is responsible for tokenization, transfer agency, and brokerage services. Investors interact with the fund through APIs or directly via smart contracts, opening pathways for integration with DeFi protocols and other digital financial instruments.
Why the Multi-Chain Approach
The choice of two blockchains simultaneously is driven by strategic considerations. Ethereum provides access to the largest decentralized finance ecosystem with hundreds of protocols and tens of billions of dollars in liquidity. Stellar, in turn, is designed for fast cross-border transfers with minimal fees — particularly relevant for a multi-currency product with four fiat denominations.
This approach allows the fund to simultaneously serve two fundamentally different audiences: DeFi investors seeking a yield-bearing on-chain instrument with a regulated structure, and traditional financial institutions that need efficient blockchain infrastructure for settlements and treasury operations.
The Tokenization Market Gains Momentum
The SAFO launch fits into the global trend of traditional finance migrating to blockchain. According to Boston Consulting Group estimates, the potential market for tokenized real-world assets (RWA) could reach $16 trillion by 2030 — a figure comparable to the current market capitalization of Bitcoin. Recently, the SEC approved tokenized stock trading on Nasdaq, further fueling institutional interest in this direction.
For Amundi itself, this is already the second step into the blockchain segment. In December 2025, the company issued the first tokenized share class of its Amundi Funds Cash EUR money market fund on Ethereum in partnership with CACEIS. The successful pilot experience allowed the company to scale the initiative into a full-fledged product with $100 million committed from launch.
What This Means for the Crypto Market
The entry of a player of Amundi's scale further solidifies Ethereum as the foundational settlement layer for institutional tokenization. Competition among blockchains to attract such products is intensifying: BlackRock is already operating its own tokenized fund BUIDL, and now Europe's largest asset manager has also bet on on-chain infrastructure.
For the broader market, this signals growing real demand for blockchain from traditional finance. Tokenized money market funds like SAFO directly compete with stablecoins for the role of the base yield-bearing on-chain instrument. If the trend continues, the balance of power between unregulated stablecoins and regulated tokenized funds could shift significantly within the coming quarters.
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