Baillie Gifford puts UK fund register on Ethereum, Solana

Baillie Gifford has recorded the legal ownership register of a UK bond fund, BAGEY, on the public blockchains Ethereum and Solana. The fund is structured as a UK-authorised open-ended investment company (OEIC). Baillie Gifford presents the on-chain entries as part of the fund’s legal ownership record and issues tokenized units to represent investor holdings. The firm manages more than £286 billion of assets.

BNY provides tokenization and wallet infrastructure for BAGEY, while NatWest Trustee and Depositary Services serves as the depositary. Chainlink supplied oracle services tied to the launch. The tokens are issued on Ethereum and Solana and are described by the manager as direct records of an investor’s holding in the regulated fund.

The Financial Conduct Authority published policy statement PS26/7 on April 30, which sets out how authorised fund managers may use distributed ledger technology within the existing authorised fund framework. Baillie Gifford’s register is a large-scale example of a regulated OEIC structure linked to public-chain infrastructure with named custodians and depositaries.

There are two distinct token models. In a wrapper model a blockchain token represents access to a conventional fund while the legally decisive register remains with traditional administrators. In a native model the blockchain entry itself forms part of the fund ownership register and records investors’ holdings on shared public rails.

Operational and legal questions surround use of public chains as part of the legal register. Areas identified for scrutiny include legal finality, custody and transfer controls, recovery from failed or mistaken transfers, procedures for lost wallets, sanctions screening and redemption timing. Market participants will also need to assess whether tokens issued on chains such as Ethereum and Solana are accepted as collateral, whether they can support peer-to-peer secondary transfers around the clock, and how settlement would work during operational stress.

Earlier pilots tested integration of transfer-agent automation and subscription and redemption workflows with blockchain systems. BAGEY extends those experiments by placing the on-chain record within a regulated OEIC structure and naming traditional service providers in the service stack.

Further disclosures from Baillie Gifford and its service providers, and operational evidence from market use, are expected to clarify how the on-chain register performs in subscription, redemption, transfer and custody scenarios, and how courts and counterparties treat ledger entries in disputes or market stress. For now, BAGEY operates as a live test of recording regulated fund ownership on public blockchains.