Calastone, the London-based global funds network, has integrated its Tokenised Distribution platform with the Polygon blockchain, enabling fund managers to issue and distribute tokenized fund share classes directly on-chain.
The rollout extends across Calastone’s global network of 4,500 financial institutions operating in over 50 markets, representing one of the most significant institutional tokenization deployments to date.
Under the new model, fund share classes – digital representations of traditional mutual fund or ETF units backed 1:1 by regulated fund assets – can move and settle via Polygon’s high-speed Layer 2 infrastructure.
Calastone said the shift is designed to streamline global fund servicing and unlock new forms of digital distribution while maintaining full compatibility with existing administrative and regulatory processes.
“Markets are demanding more efficient, transparent infrastructure, and blockchain is ready to deliver at scale,” said Simon Keefe, Calastone’s Head of Digital Solutions. He added that integrating with Polygon allows Calastone’s tokenized distribution platform to link its global fund network with the speed, programmability, and settlement capabilities of on-chain environments.
Operational Efficiency and Expanded Access
Calastone emphasized that the tokenized share classes do not require changes to a fund’s existing structure, custody model, or servicing workflow. Instead, fund managers gain access to new digital-native distribution channels and blockchain-based liquidity pools.
The approach aims to reduce settlement times, lower operational costs, and bring greater transparency to fund operations without introducing friction into the current asset-management stack.
The integration also enables institutions to engage with on-chain capital pools – such as tokenized treasury instruments, digital cash, and blockchain-based investor networks – while preserving traditional compliance, reporting, and oversight mechanisms.
Institutional Tokenization at Scale
Calastone’s platform first launched earlier this year across Ethereum, Polygon, and Canton, but the latest phase marks the point where live institutional flows can be processed entirely on-chain. With more than £250 billion in monthly fund activity, Calastone’s tokenized network has the potential to bring large-scale operational efficiency to the asset-management sector.
Industry analysts say the move represents a turning point in institutional tokenization, offering a pathway for asset managers to modernize distribution models without the disruption typically associated with blockchain adoption.
As tokenized real-world assets, digital fund units, and blockchain-native liquidity continue to grow, Calastone’s Polygon integration could become a blueprint for next-generation fund infrastructure.
