One of the pioneers of tokenised investment products has urged UK fund managers to begin tokenising their products, arguing that broader participation is now essential to give end‑investors meaningful choice and to accelerate the modernisation of market infrastructure.
Theo Golden, head of digital assets at Baillie Gifford, said the industry had reached the point where “the first movers have shown what’s possible”, and warned that progress will stall unless more managers start experimenting with tokenised fund structures.
Golden was the lead manager on the first tokenised fund to be launched in the UK, revealed by Capital Pioneer 12 months ago. The Edinburgh-based group has recently launched the Baillie Gifford Enhanced Yield Fund (BAGEY), under Golden’s leadership, but with an expanding team.
Golden was speaking at a presentation for the investment industry in London on Wednesday, July 9, in a panel hosted by the Investment Association’s John Allan. The pair were joined on stage by Katey Neate, chief executive of BNY International, which acts as custodian of the fund.
“We’ve proven the model works. The next step is for others to come in so investors actually have a market to choose from,” Golden said. “Tokenisation isn’t a theoretical upgrade anymore – it’s a practical one. But it only becomes meaningful when there’s breadth across the industry.”
Golden said tokenisation should be viewed as an infrastructure improvement rather than a product innovation. “This is about modernising the plumbing,” he said. “If managers start tokenising today, we’ll get better settlement rails, better transfer‑agency models and better interoperability tomorrow. But someone has to start.”
Neate said the custody and servicing side of the industry is ready for broader adoption and that tokenisation will ultimately reduce operational friction for managers and distributors.
“From our perspective, the infrastructure is catching up fast,” she said. “Managers don’t need to wait for a perfect environment. The point is to start, learn and iterate. The more managers that engage, the faster the ecosystem matures.”
Neate added that tokenisation could help rebuild trust in fund operations by making processes more transparent. “Investors increasingly expect real‑time information and cleaner audit trails. Tokenised structures can deliver that,” she said.
Golden said Baillie Gifford’s pilot demonstrated that tokenised funds can be launched within existing regulation and without disrupting day‑to‑day operations. “We didn’t need a revolution to get this live,” he said. “We needed clarity, collaboration and a willingness to test. That’s available to everyone.”
He warned that the UK risks falling behind if adoption remains limited to a handful of managers. “Other jurisdictions are moving quickly,” he said. “If we want the UK to lead, we need more managers in the arena. Tokenisation is not a crypto experiment – it’s the future of fund infrastructure.”
Golden said Baillie Gifford will continue to work with industry bodies and regulators to support wider adoption. “We’re not trying to own this space,” he said. “We’re trying to open it.”
