The August issue of our flagship Money Fund Intelligence newsletter, which will be sent to subscribers Friday morning, features the articles: "Tokenized MMF Launches Proliferate: BlackRock, Aviva," which reviews the latest tokenized money fund launches; "Quarterly Earnings Calls Quiet on Money Fund, Cash News," which discusses Q2'26 earnings discussions on cash, deposits and sweeps; and "Federated's Donahue on MF Market Share, Digital, Rates," which quotes Federated Hermes' latest earnings call. We also will send out our MFI XLS spreadsheet Friday a.m., and we've updated our Money Fund Wisdom database with 7/31/26 data. Our August Money Fund Portfolio Holdings are scheduled to ship on Tuesday, Aug. 11, and our August Bond Fund Intelligence is scheduled to go out on Friday, Aug. 14. (Note: Please join us for our upcoming European Money Fund Symposium, which will take place next month -- Sept. 24-25 in Paris, France!)
MFI's "Tokenized MMF Launches" story says, "A press release, 'BlackRock Expands Tokenized Cash Platform with BSTBL On-Chain Shares and BRSRV,' tells us, 'BlackRock expanded its cash management strategy with the launch of two tokenized money market products: On-Chain Shares of the BlackRock Select Treasury Based Liquidity Fund ('BSTBL') and the BlackRock Daily Reinvestment Stablecoin Reserve Vehicle ('BRSRV'). The new products combine BlackRock's money market capabilities with blockchain-based infrastructure while maintaining the liquidity and stability, investors expect from regulated money market funds.'"
It continues, "Jon Steel, Global Head of Product and Platform for BlackRock Cash Management, comments, 'Cash remains a foundational building block for investors, corporations, and financial institutions. U.S. money market funds have grown to more than $8.4 trillion in assets as investors continue to prioritize liquidity, capital preservation, and the potential for yield. As demand grows for high-quality reserve assets to support stablecoins and other tokenized financial products, these funds provide clients with additional choice in how they access and use money market fund investment solutions across traditional and digital markets.'"
We write in our "Quarterly Earnings" article, "The latest quarterly earnings season has been lighter than usual with mentions of money market funds and 'cash.' On Charles Schwab's Q2'26 Summer Business Update, CFO Michael Verdeschi tells analysts, 'Bank deposit account fees grew 35% year-over-year due to continued improvement in the net yield, other revenue was up 32% versus 2Q 2025, with stronger trading volumes as well as typical second quarter seasonality.... Client cash followed typical seasonal trends, including tax payments in April. While strong equity markets lifted sentiment and supported elevated trading activity, transactional sweep cash increased by $24.2 billion in 2Q, largely driven by demand for long-short strategies as well as organic asset gathering. Beyond the growth related to long-short, client cash trends remain strong with year-to-date underlying cash performing better than our initial expectations coming into the year.'"
The story continues, "During the Q&A, he responds on rates, 'Keep in mind that we'll have to see how the rate path plays out. Right now we were assuming one hike. That hike was for the December meeting so you're not seeing that incremental pickup in 2026. If that hike were to occur it's going to be impacting the financials in 2027. No, we feel good about the net interest margin expansion that we've seen so far. If rates resume a hiking pattern, you'll see even more expansion <b:>`_…. We continue to see cash build organically as well. `Again, we've seen growth in the first half of the year despite the seasonality of Q1 and Q2.'"
Our "Federated's Donahue" article says, "Federated Hermes CEO Chris Donahue comments on their Q2'26 earnings call, 'Total money market assets decreased by $7.9 billion or about 1%. Money market funds decreased by $2.9 billion or 1% from Q1, yet were up almost $32 billion or 7% year-over-year. After ending 2025 at a record high of $508 billion, money market fund assets have decreased slightly over the first half of the year to $500 billion at the end of Q2. Money market separate accounts decreased by about $5 billion or 3%, similar to last year's Q2 decrease of $5.8 billion.'"
It states, "Donahue continues, 'Still, these assets were up about $10 billion or 6.4% year-over-year at the end of Q2. Money market separate account assets are impacted by the liquidity levels of the large state pools that we manage and typically peak with tax collections at year-end through mid-April before decreasing in Q2 and Q3. Our estimate of money market mutual fund market share, including sub-advised funds, was about 6.7% at the end of Q2, down from 6.9% at the end of Q1.'"
MFI also includes the News brief, "MMF Assets Drop in July, Dip Back Below $8.3 Trillion." It says, "Our MFI XLS shows MMF assets falling $65.6 billion in July to $8.290 trillion, after hitting a record $8.404 trillion in June. ICI's 'Money Market Fund Assets' shows MMFs rebounding $55.4 billion to $7.909 trillion in the latest week (ended 8/5)."
Another News brief, "BNY Debuts BLIQUID Tokenized MF," says, "A release, 'BNY Investments Launches Its First Native Blockchain Product, BLIQUID by BNY,' states, 'BNY Investments Dreyfus ... announced the launch of BNY Dreyfus On-Chain Liquidity Fund, one of the first digitally native, SEC-registered 2a-7 money funds.'"
A third News brief, "Bloomberg: Money Funds Shorten," tells us, "Bloomberg writes that, 'Money Funds Keep Cash Closer as Fed Leaves Markets Guessing.' The article tells us, 'Money market funds are shifting toward ultra short-term holdings and away from assets with even modest interest-rate risk as uncertainty grows over the Fed's policy path and the near-term outlook for rates. The weighted average maturity of fund holdings has fallen to 40 days from 45 days in mid-May, according to Crane Data. Managers have directed more cash into overnight repurchase agreements and short-dated securities, while increasing allocations to floating-rate agency and Treasury debt. Exposure to T-bills has edged lower even as the government ramps up issuance.' See also, Reuters' 'US money market funds turn defensive with Fed rate outlook uncertain.'"
A sidebar, "Stablecoin Reserves Recap," says, "Mutual fund news source ignites published, 'Fund Shops Race to Launch Stablecoin Reserve Money Funds,' which tells us, 'Traditional asset managers are rolling out a wave of government money market funds tailored specifically to stablecoin reserves, positioning themselves to capture institutional cash ahead of expected regulatory mandates. Firms including Morgan Stanley, State Street, BNY and Goldman Sachs have launched products over the past several months.'"
Our August MFI XLS, with July 31 data, shows total assets falling $65.6 billion to $8.290 trillion, after increasing $49.5 billion in June and $193.2 billion in May. They decreased $102.1 billion in April and $56.6 billion in March, but increased $94.0 billion in February. Assets rose $38.5 billion in January, $123.5 billion in December, $129.3 billion in November, $141.5 billion in October, $100.4 billion in September, and $129.9 billion last August.
Our broad Crane Money Fund Average 7-Day Yield was up 3 bps at 3.39%, and our Crane 100 Money Fund Index (the 100 largest taxable funds) was up 3 bps at 3.50% in July. On a Gross Yield Basis (7-Day) (before expenses are taken out), the Crane MFA and the Crane 100 averaged 3.75% and 3.76%. Charged Expenses averaged 0.36% and 0.26% for the Crane MFA and the Crane 100. (We'll revise expenses once we upload the SEC's Form N-MFP data for 7/31/26 on Monday, 8/10.) The average WAM (weighted average maturity) for the Crane MFA was 38 days (down 1 day) and the Crane 100 WAM was down 1 day from the previous month at 40 days. (See our Crane Index or craneindexes.xlsx history file for more on our averages.)
