BNY Mellon's Slavin: FOMO Is Pushing Asset Managers to Speed Up Tokenized ETF Rollouts

Asset managers are stepping up efforts to bring tokenized ETFs to market, driven by rising investor demand and a fear of missing early opportunities in blockchain-based finance, BNY Mellon's Global ETF Head Ben Slavin said, according to Mars Finance citing The Block. Slavin said BNY Mellon has several tokenized ETF projects in progress. Even as regulatory and infrastructure standards remain incomplete, clients are pressing to launch as quickly as possible. He argued that blockchain networks could evolve into a new distribution rail for traditional investment products. Tokenization may enable around-the-clock ownership and transfers of fund shares, shorten settlement cycles, and broaden access for investors globally. Slavin also cautioned that hundreds of widely known ETFs are already trading in tokenized form on unregulated venues, often without direct approval from the fund sponsors, creating reputational risk. He said the issue has become a major point of discussion among BNY's asset management clients. The industry is still working through issues such as linking tokenized funds to existing market infrastructure, building secondary trading mechanisms, and clarifying regulatory frameworks. Slavin said sentiment among asset managers is increasingly shifting toward the view that "getting in early" matters more than "waiting for clarity."