Investors interested in Singapore asset tokenisation are watching a market that has moved from regulatory experiment to live infrastructure, with named firms now deploying real solutions and a formal industry coalition forming behind the effort.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Project Guardian sits at the centre of this push. The initiative brings together policymakers and financial institutions to improve liquidity and efficiency through tokenisation, and it has attracted some of the largest names in global asset management. The Investment Management Association of Singapore (IMAS) and the UK’s Investment Association are both the first domestic trade associations and first asset management-specific bodies to join Project Guardian, giving the initiative a direct line into fund managers on both sides of the world.
IMAS has also published an e-learning module titled ‘The Brave New World of Tokenisation and Blockchain in Asset Management’, developed with Schroders, Baker McKenzie Wong and Leow, and Phillip Capital. The module has roots in an IMAS Investment Conference 2024 masterclass. IMAS CEO Carmen Wee argues that the industry can only progress by building shared knowledge and readiness, and that her organisation is positioned to help members identify emerging opportunities.
Singapore Asset Tokenisation and Project Guardian: The Regulatory Backbone
Project Guardian has already produced practical outputs: frameworks for designing open and interoperable digital asset networks, models for cross-ledger integration, and guidance for implementing tokenisation across asset classes. One proof-of-concept completed under the initiative involved Kinexys by J.P. Morgan and Apollo, who in 2023 tested how tokenisation and smart contracts could enable discretionary portfolios to be built across fragmented tokenised traditional and alternative funds, including automating portfolio rebalancing and standardising subscription and redemption processes.
A more recent milestone came in July 2025, when ISDA and Ant International led a Project Guardian working group that published a report on using tokenised bank liabilities and shared ledger technology in cross-border payments and foreign exchange settlement. Kenneth Gay, MAS Chief FinTech Officer, stated that ‘the use of tokenized bank liabilities marks a milestone in the evolution of cross-border payments and FX settlements,’ according to the ISDA/Ant International report.
From Pilot to Live: What the Standard Chartered Deployment Shows
Standard Chartered moved beyond proof-of-concept on 18 December 2025, when it announced a tokenised SGD and USD account balances solution for Ant International, following the successful completion of a pilot involving SGD-denominated liquidity transfers. The Standard Chartered Singapore press release explains that the solution integrates Ant International’s bank accounts held with Standard Chartered with tokenised deposits on Ant International’s Whale platform, enabling real-time, 24/7 movement of value.
Standard Chartered has also separately tokenised HKD, CNH and USD accounts for Ant International on the same Whale platform, this time under the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s Supervisory Incubator for Distributed Ledger Technology and Project Ensemble, following the completion of HKD-denominated blockchain test settlement. The Standard Chartered global newsroom covers that deployment separately. Taken together, the two rollouts show a single institution building tokenised deposit rails across multiple currencies and regulatory jurisdictions simultaneously.
Ankur Kanwar, head of transaction banking and cash management for Singapore, ASEAN and globally at Standard Chartered, describes the ambition: ‘The solution was co-created with Ant International and aims to enable it to future-proof its treasury and shift to real-time, 24/7 movement of value in SGD and USD.’
Collateral, Settlement and the Mechanics That Matter for Fund Holders
For retail investors holding funds, the most direct benefit on the horizon is faster settlement. Tokenisation (representing ownership of an asset as a digital token on a blockchain) removes manual reconciliation steps and can compress settlement from the current two-day standard to near-instant, what practitioners call atomic settlement. That matters because it reduces the window in which a counterparty can default before a trade is completed.
Justin Christopher, head of Asia at Calastone, points to the operational gains: ‘Integrated properly, tokenisation removes manual reconciliation, embeds compliance into workflows and strengthens risk control.’ He adds that tokenised instruments can reach beyond traditional channels into digital-native platforms and new liquidity venues without stepping outside regulated frameworks.
For institutional holders, the picture is broader. Duncan Trenholme, managing director of TP ICAP Fusion Digital Assets, explains that when cash and collateral can move in minutes, funding transitions from broad overnight blocks to precise intraday slices. Collateral spreads tighten and reuse cycles accelerate as the short end of the rates curve begins to reflect those finer time units.
Fractional ownership is the piece most relevant to retail savers. By splitting a previously illiquid asset into smaller digital units, tokenisation could, in time, allow ISA or SIPP holders to access asset classes such as infrastructure debt or private credit that currently require minimum commitments well beyond the reach of individual investors.
PhillipCapital’s fintech director Huan Kiat puts the caveat plainly: ‘Ultimately, its long-term impact will depend on whether it delivers tangible improvements in cost, access and execution compared with traditional structures.’ The closing date of Project Guardian’s next cross-border settlement pilot will be one concrete moment to watch.
