BNY, the world's largest custodian bank, is putting the recordkeeping behind its $8.6 trillion transfer-agency business onto a blockchain, a business that spans 7.6 million fund accounts.

A transfer agent keeps the official record of who owns a fund's shares and handles issuance, transfers and redemptions. BNY is moving those books and records onchain to create one shared ledger and strip out layers of reconciliation between parties.

Early tokenized funds on the platform come from Baillie Gifford, BlackRock and BNY's own Dreyfus unit. BNY says it will keep its legacy systems running alongside the chain for years, given cyber and smart-contract risk. Note that the $8.6T figure is BNY's own book of business, not the whole market, and BNY has no token.