Baillie Gifford tests fund ownership records on Ethereum, Solana

For crypto investors, this matters because it pushes public blockchains deeper into regulated finance. Baillie Gifford, which manages more than GBP 286 billion, is testing a UK bond fund where Ethereum and Solana are used as part of the ownership record, not just as a distribution layer for a tokenized product.

The fund, called BAGEY, is described as a native UK-regulated tokenized fund built through an OEIC structure. Baillie Gifford said issuance takes place on Ethereum and Solana, with BNY providing tokenization and wallet infrastructure and NatWest Trustee and Depositary Services acting as depositary. In this model, the blockchain record forms part of the legal register that shows who owns the fund.

That is different from a tokenized wrapper, where a token gives access to an off-chain product while the decisive ownership record stays in traditional systems. Here, the test is whether regulated fund ownership can sit on shared public ledgers inside an existing legal framework.

The UK has already opened the door for this approach. The Financial Conduct Authority published PS26/7 on April 30, setting out how authorized fund managers can use distributed ledger technology and DLT-based unitholder registers. What BAGEY does not yet prove is whether these fund units can support secondary transfers, round-the-clock settlement, or broad collateral use.