Tokenized Cash Funds Enter the Institutional Mainstream
TREE NEWS reports: Spiko, a Paris-based issuer of tokenized cash funds, has closed a $90 million Series B round led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), with participation from Index Ventures, Bpifrance, Speedinvest, and White Star Capital. The raise marks one of the largest venture rounds this year for a European tokenization startup and signals that institutional capital is increasingly comfortable with on-chain money market products.
What Spiko Actually Does
Spiko issues tokenized versions of regulated money market funds, giving holders on-chain exposure to short-term government debt and cash equivalents. Its products are designed to function as a yield-bearing dollar or euro instrument that can be held in a crypto wallet, transferred 24/7, and used as collateral or treasury management tooling. Unlike many DeFi-native yield products, Spiko operates within the EU’s regulated fund framework, which is precisely the pitch that has attracted traditional venture backers.
Why This Round Matters
- TradFi-DeFi convergence accelerates: Tokenized treasury products have grown from a niche experiment into a multi-billion-dollar category, led by players like BlackRock’s BUIDL, Franklin Templeton’s BENJI, and Ondo Finance. Spiko’s raise shows the European market is building its own regulated champions.
- Yield is the wedge: With crypto-native stablecoins paying little to nothing, tokenized cash funds offer a compliant way to earn the risk-free rate on-chain. That is a powerful acquisition channel for both retail and corporate treasuries.
- Distribution, not just issuance, is the battleground: The next phase of competition will be about which platforms can embed these tokens into wallets, exchanges, custodians, and DeFi protocols as default cash rails.
The Broader Tokenization Thesis
The RWA sector has matured from proof-of-concept pilots into live products with real assets under management. Tokenized cash funds are arguably the most successful vertical because they combine a simple, well-understood underlying asset (short-term government debt) with clear benefits: instant settlement, programmability, and global accessibility. As interest rates remain elevated relative to the past decade, the yield differential between tokenized funds and idle stablecoins is large enough to drive meaningful capital migration.
What to Watch Next
Spiko will likely use the capital to expand distribution across European banks, brokers, and fintechs, and potentially to launch new share classes or currencies. The key questions for the sector are regulatory: how will MiCA’s evolving rules treat tokenized fund units, and will US regulators provide similar clarity for dollar-denominated products? If both jurisdictions converge on workable frameworks, tokenized cash could become a standard treasury primitive for the next decade of finance.
