F/m Investments has filed an exemptive application with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission seeking permission to record ownership of tokenized shares in the F/m US Treasury 3 Month Bill ETF (TBIL) on a permissioned blockchain ledger.
The application is believed to be the first filed by an ETF issuer seeking SEC relief specifically for tokenized shares of a registered investment company.
“Tokenization is coming to securities markets whether we file this application or not,” said Alexander Morris, CEO of F/m Investments. “The question is whether it happens inside the regulatory framework investors have relied on for 85 years, or without that set of protections for investors. We’d rather build an on-ramp that marries technological innovation and investor protection than watch from the sidelines.”
“If the SEC grants the requested relief, TBIL’s existing ETF shares could also be represented on a permissioned, blockchain-based ledger under the same CUSIP, with the same rights, fees, voting rights, and economic terms as TBIL shares today,” said Aisha Hunt, founder of Kelley Hunt, PLLC and strategic ETF and tokenization counsel to F/m Investments. “The filing is intended to provide a regulated pathway for token-enabled ownership recording and settlement workflows on-chain, while remaining within the Rule 6c-11 framework under the 1940 Act.”
The filing comes as major exchanges announce competing tokenization initiatives, underscoring the industry’s rapid move toward blockchain-based infrastructure. Unlike stablecoins or unregistered digital tokens—which generally cannot guarantee backing by traditional assets—F/m’s approach keeps tokenized shares firmly within the Investment Company Act of 1940. This means independent Board oversight, daily transparency, third-party custody and audit, and the full weight of 85 years of securities regulation—protections that investors holding “in the wild” tokens simply do not have.
If the SEC grants the requested relief, this approach will allow TBIL to support traditional brokerage rails and digital-native, token-aware platforms through a single share class. TBIL’s investment objective, portfolio, index, or exchange-traded mechanics would not change. The filing was made in collaboration with The RBB Fund, Inc., F/m’s multi-series trust, which has supported governance-led innovation within the ETF framework.
“RBB’s governance-first platform supports responsible innovation within established operational standards,” said David Littleton, co-founder and president of F/m Investments. “Our aim is for TBIL to operate as a standard Rule 6c-11 Treasury ETF while giving institutions a regulated way to move between traditional and token-aware settlement workflows.”
