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Goldman Sachs Opens $100 Billion Treasury Fund to Crypto Firms Without Tokenizing It

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Key Takeaways

  • Goldman’s FTIXX fund is now offered to crypto firms on Lynq, with trades handled by SEC-registered broker-dealer tZERO Securities.
  • Unlike BlackRock’s BUIDL and Franklin Templeton’s BENJI, FTIXX stays a traditional fund, and Lynq acts only as a distribution channel.
  • Access is limited to eligible U.S. clients who complete onboarding, and Lynq’s own reported $89 million in assets is small next to the fund.

Goldman Sachs is making its roughly $100 billion Treasury fund, FTIXX, available to institutional digital-asset firms through Lynq, a settlement network used by crypto companies. Unlike other Wall Street entrants in the space, the bank is not creating a tokenized version of the fund.

A Traditional Fund on a Crypto Settlement Network

Lynq will offer FTIXX to its clients, with trades handled by tZERO Securities, an SEC-registered broker-dealer. FTIXX is the first outside fund offered on the network, which previously carried just one investment product.

The approach differs from the route taken by several large asset managers. BlackRock built its BUIDL fund as a tokenized product, and Franklin Templeton offers tokenized shares of its money market fund through BENJI. FTIXX remains the same traditional fund. Lynq serves as a new distribution channel rather than a new form of the asset.

That structure means Goldman Sachs does not have to build a blockchain-based product to reach crypto firms. Lynq is instead bringing an established fund into the workflow those firms already use to move money.

Meeting a Client Request for Treasury Yield

For firms on Lynq, FTIXX offers a place to hold cash between trades and earn yield on it, with the option to withdraw when the money is needed again. Lynq CEO Jerald David said in a broadcast interview that clients had asked for a treasury asset on the platform, and that the network needed proof of demand before adding one.

“We needed to demonstrate that there was client demand.”

David said clients wanted an option with a different yield profile from the one investment product already on the network. He also described the addition as part of a wider convergence between traditional market participants and digital-asset market participants, and said FTIXX is the second asset available to institutional clients on a platform that can now support multiple assets.

The network counts firms including B2C2, Wintermute, Galaxy, FalconX, Crypto.com and Fireblocks among its clients. Those businesses can require moving large sums between trades, which makes a yield-bearing place to park idle cash relevant to their daily operations.

What Lynq Had to Build

Bringing FTIXX onto the network required technical and operational changes, David said. Lynq modified its technology, restricted access to U.S. clients and integrated with Mosaic. Customers must also have a relationship with tZERO Securities and pass the required onboarding and eligibility checks before they can trade the fund.

Lynq runs on a private, permissioned Avalanche Layer 1 blockchain. The company said more than 30 institutional digital-asset firms are onboarded to the network, and that it holds more than $89 million in assets. That figure is a company claim and is small relative to the size of the Goldman fund now being offered through it.

A Different Path Into Institutional Crypto

The arrangement shows that traditional asset managers have more than one option for reaching crypto-native firms. Some have chosen to issue tokenized versions of their funds on public or private blockchains. Goldman Sachs has instead chosen to plug an existing product into infrastructure that crypto firms already use for settlement.

The choice avoids some of the legal and technical work involved in creating a tokenized security, while still giving digital-asset firms access to Treasury-backed yield. It also limits the offering to eligible U.S. clients who complete onboarding, which narrows the audience compared with a product designed for broad on-chain distribution.

The distribution model also keeps the fund inside the existing regulatory perimeter. FTIXX continues to operate as a conventional fund, and the trades run through a registered broker-dealer rather than through a token contract. 

For institutional compliance teams, that can simplify internal approvals, since the product they are buying is one they already recognize and the intermediary handling the transaction is a regulated securities firm.

Lynq’s role is that of a settlement and distribution layer. By adding a second asset, the network moves beyond a single-product offering and positions itself as a venue where crypto firms can hold more than one type of cash-management instrument. 

Whether additional funds follow will likely depend on client demand and on how other asset managers weigh the tokenization route against a distribution-only approach like Goldman’s.

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