Traditional Finance's Silent Shift: How Ethereum Became the Institutional Money Market Settlement Hub

In a move that crystallized the crypto industry’s long-held thesis about public blockchains, Amundi—commanding €2.2 trillion in assets as Europe’s largest asset manager—quietly deployed a tokenized money market fund directly on Ethereum’s mainnet on November 4, 2025. The market only caught wind of this three weeks later, but the implications were unmistakable: institutional capital isn’t migrating to private chains or closed networks. It’s choosing Ethereum.

Why Ethereum Won Over Private Alternatives

Amundi’s decision echoes a broader institutional awakening. BlackRock and Franklin Templeton had already walked this path, rejecting permissioned networks in favor of Ethereum’s transparent, permissionless architecture. The pattern is now undeniable—when traditional finance needs a settlement layer for tokenized assets, they’re gravitating toward Ethereum’s liquidity, interoperability, and established infrastructure.

This isn’t about ideology or revolution. It’s pragmatism. Ethereum offers institutional-grade security while maintaining the composability that makes real-world asset tokenization economically viable.

The Mechanics: 24/7 Trading Meets Regulatory Certainty

Partnering with CACEIS, a custodian heavyweight in European finance, Amundi structured this tokenized money market fund as a hybrid instrument. The architecture is elegant: institutional clients access it through traditional banking channels, while on-chain participants enjoy the speed and efficiency of blockchain settlement.

The result? Continuous trading cycles (24/7 operations), instant settlement capability, and programmable fund mechanics—all without abandoning the regulatory frameworks that institutional investors require. It’s a blueprint for how modern finance actually bridges traditional and decentralized worlds.

From Niche to Mainstream: The RWA Explosion

The timing reflects explosive sector growth. The real-world asset tokenization market expanded from $770 million in 2022 to nearly $9 billion by October 2025—a scale shift that signals genuine institutional adoption rather than experimental dabbling. Amundi’s money market settlement fund entry further validates Ethereum’s role as the dominant institutional-grade settlement layer.

What makes this significant isn’t the announcement itself—it’s that Amundi didn’t feel the need to announce it. When tokenized money market infrastructure becomes so normalized that a €2.2 trillion asset manager deploys it without fanfare, you’re witnessing infrastructure maturation, not hype.