S&P Global Ratings has published a detailed credit FAQ explaining how it incorporates blockchain-specific risks into its existing fixed-income fund rating methodologies, as tokenised money market funds surpass $15billion in assets under management globally, according to data cited from RWA.xyz. The agency currently rates three tokenised funds: the OpenEden TBILL Fund, the Janus Henderson Anemoy Treasury Fund, and the Delta Wellington Ultra Short Treasury On-Chain Fund.
The source title references a ‘AAAm’ Principal Stability Fund Rating (PSFR) for the Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund, though the body of the published FAQ does not confirm that rating action specifically. The document functions primarily as a methodology explainer, not a standalone rating notice.
How S&P assesses on-chain risk
S&P’s framework applies its standard fund-rating scales, including the PSFR for money market funds and the Fund Credit Quality Rating for bond funds, but extends them to capture risks unique to distributed-ledger structures. On-chain risk factors include smart contract integrity, oracle accuracy, the selection of stablecoins used for subscription and redemption flows, wallet security standards, and the resilience of bridging mechanisms used when assets move between blockchains.
For the PSFR methodology specifically, on-chain considerations are embedded within the management and internal controls categories. The agency said it may apply weighted average maturity adjustments for funds with limited operating history, small asset sizes or concentrated shareholder bases, noting these conditions are more common in recently launched tokenised vehicles.
Cybersecurity controls receive detailed treatment. S&P evaluates whether a fund has deployed multi-signature wallets, multi-party computation for private key management, multi-factor authentication and segregated administrative roles. The agency also considers whether smart contracts are open-source, the reputation of auditors who reviewed the code, and whether identified vulnerabilities were subsequently remediated.
Regulatory read-across
The FAQ dedicates a section to the two principal US legislative pillars shaping the stablecoin environment that most tokenised funds depend upon for cash-leg settlement. The GENIUS Act, enacted in 2025, establishes a federal licensing regime for payment stablecoins, requiring one-to-one liquid reserves, redemption at par, and robust anti-money laundering controls, with implementation expected no later than January 2027. The CLARITY Act, which has passed the House of Representatives but remains under Senate debate, aims to clarify the legal status of tokenised instruments and their regulatory oversight.
In the EU, the Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, which came into full effect in 2024, provides legal clarity for stablecoin issuers, settlement layers and the service intermediaries that tokenised funds use. S&P noted that finalised legislation across both jurisdictions would likely accelerate broader institutional adoption by reducing regulatory uncertainty.
The structural significance of S&P’s engagement is worth noting. When a major credit agency publishes a formal methodology for an asset class, it signals that institutional risk committees can begin to process it systematically, which is a prerequisite for allocation at scale. Tokenised money market funds remain a fraction of the overall US money market industry at roughly 0.30% of assets, but the combination of credible ratings infrastructure and incoming regulatory frameworks for stablecoins removes two of the principal barriers that have kept larger institutional allocators on the sidelines.
The next milestones to watch are the formal passage of the CLARITY Act, the first ratings published under the GENIUS Act’s reserve requirements, and whether additional fund managers follow BlackRock and Franklin Templeton in seeking formal ratings for tokenised vehicles.
