Polygon and Ethereum Investment Innovation: Spiko Launches Tokenized Mutual Funds for US Treasury and European Bonds

• Two tokenized mutual funds for the US Treasury and European Bonds have been launched by Spiko and will be available on the Ethereum and Polygon blockchain. 

• 4 million Euros ($4.2 million) has been raised through a pre-seed round to sustain and finance the platform. 

Polygon (MATIC) has announced the launch of two tokenized mutual funds by Spiko as part of the plans to transform the financial markets by leveraging blockchain databases. Based on the US Treasury bond and Europe government bonds, the tokenized mutual funds were designed to offer easy access to investments that were previously inaccessible. As explained in the announcement, this represents a big shift in how financial instruments are issued and managed. 

French start-up, @spiko_xyz, has launched two tokenized mutual funds based on US treasury bonds and European government bonds — democratizing access to secure investments, with $50m already committed. available on Ethereum and Polygon PoShttps://t.co/sotyzDGxra— Polygon | Aggregated (@0xPolygon) June 13, 2024

Spiko operates as a licensed financial investment advisor with its platform known for the lower barrier of entry into issued bonds. Per our research, investors can start with as low as €1,000 or $1,000. Previously, investing in US Treasury bonds or European government bonds was not easy for small portfolios as the entry tickets were mostly tens or hundreds of thousands of Euros.

On top of that, there were high fees with ceilings in place. Interestingly, the arrival of Spiko has made it possible to invest in smaller amounts. 

According to the announcement, this groundbreaking offering would be available on Ethereum and Polygon with investors having the chance to benefit from a yield of up to 5% a year and with no cap. 

Spiko Raises Funds to Sustain the Initiative

To sustain this initiative and finance the development of the platform, 4 million euros ($4.2 million) have been raised as part of a pre-seed round with the participation of several funds such as First, Blockwall, or Kima.

Recounting the journey to this milestone, Spiko stated that they set a “crazy” challenge for themselves a year ago. According to them, the challenge was to launch the first USD and EUR-denominated Money Market Funds issued on Ethereum.

To set themselves apart from competitors, the fund shares would be accessible to retail investors rather than just a few qualified purchasers. As designed, these assets would be self-custodied. This implies that they would be held in EVM-compatible wallets. Also, they would be transferred 24 hours on-chain and used as collateral in DeFi.

The blockchain would be the authoritative ledger, not a mirror of transactions conducted in a centralized database operated by the transfer agent. Token ownership would grant governance rights, allowing influence over the issuer’s decisions.

It is important to note that the $USTBL and $EUTBL are the shares of the Spiko UD Treasury Bills MMF. Under the EU law, these funds are UCITS MMF and are approved by the French Financial Markets Authority. An open-ended investment company domiciled in France, Spiko SICAV, would issue the assets. Also, holders of these assets are shareholders of Spiko SICAV and are entitled to participate in the governance and the election of board members.

As claimed by the company, the Spiko MMFs are operated through the collaboration of third parties such as CACEIS (a subsidiary of G-SIBs Crédit Agricole and Santander). 

We are building the next-generation platform to issue, manage and distribute securities, shifting securities from legacy settlement rails to more efficient ones. $USTBL and $EUTBL are just the first products in a long series as we embark on this journey.

At press time, MATIC was trading at $0.6 after declining by 2.5% in the last 24 hours.