Officially taking over management of superstate's flagship tokenize the US Treasury fund, and this move puts investors squarely in the $12 billion tokenized Treasury market with blockchain rails offering near instant settlement and round the clock access.
This partnership marks a massive shift in how institutional money moves.
Well joining us live here to break this down is Kathleen, global head of digital assets for Invesco, and Robert Lesner, CEO and co-founder of Superst Kathleen.
Robert, great to have you here.
Thank you so much for joining me.
Thank you for having us.
Well, first and foremost, Kathleen, I do want to start out with you and ask you about this partnership.
Why now in terms of timing?
Yeah, we see tokenization as a structural shift in how asset managers operate over time, and so the ability to partner with the superstate to take over their tokenized US Treasury fund is incredibly exciting as a way to get more comfortable operating tokenized funds, leveraging their leading lain infrastructure and leveraging our investment management expertise for many decades.
And Robert, I do want to move on to you.
So tell us what this partnership means for Superstate.
Yes, this partnership is really significant because it's the first.
Independent asset manager and MEC's massive, successful, has an incredible track record on the superstate platform.
We started off by launching our own proprietary products.
This is really the beginning of a shift from superstate testing the tokenization process with our own products to working with the world's best asset managers.
And so this is really superstate moving from an in-house model to a partner.
And speaking of which, Kathleen, I do want to ask you how managing a fund on blockchain rails differs from what you're doing on a daily basis.
Yeah, well, that's the great part about partnering with super states is still leverage their chain infrastructure.
We get to do what we continue to do, which is investment management, and then also, you know, be able to work on our kind of product management and risk management to see how we can implement new product features going over time on institutional grade offerings.
And Robert, I do want to ask you why Invesco for this partnership.
Yes, we've been incredibly selective.
We've diligenced all of the world's best asset managers, and you know Invesco really shined for us because you know of a couple of things.
One is their track record, but second is their desire, and thanks to Kathleen for this, to really push into using.
Blockchains and tokenized infrastructure to grow their business and so for us it's really a perfect partnership because it doesn't stop with USTB.
USDB, a billion dollars tokenized treasury product, is the ability for both of us to work together and learn from sharing responsibility for a billion dollars product.
Yes, and speaking of which, we've been hearing about tokenized securities not just in 2026 but also last year and as we continue to hear about partnerships, Kathleen, I do want to ask you how does this early operational experience actually set up the long term.
Ambition for scaling tokenized offerings here.
Yes, so this is a strategic priority for the firm tokenization, thinking of our exchange rated products, they are half our current market cap.
Currently we're the 4th largest ETPs globally, so very important that we are at the top of the tokenized securities evolution.
Yes, and Robert, for viewers out there who may be familiar with Superstate and they're wondering what this means going forward, what would you say to them?
Yes, this is really the closing of the very first inning of tokenization and the beginning of the second, still very early, but we're starting to see you. asset managers exploring how to use tokenization for funds to come unchained so they can move faster, they can settle faster, they can be open to more investors globally, they can work 24/7.
They can be programmable, and you know we can transform the way investment management works from the ground up.
And both of you mentioned this is just the beginning.
So what does this mean going forward?
Yeah, I think it's an evolution and this is going to take time and we're looking forward to collaborating to really leverage on infrastructure to provide new product features and net new utility for our clients because this is going to take time to create new business models that can operate on blockchain rails.
And finally, before I let both of you go, we are kicking off Q2 2026, and although we're seeing a crypto winner here, there is a lot of focus on the. institutionalization when it comes to digital assets.
So Kathleen, first starting with you, what are trends that you're watching and what are your expectations for the rest of this year?
Yes, I'm not sure who coined it, but they're saying the crypto winner is now the stablecoin summer where really we're seeing incredible adoption from institutional collaborative as managers, banks across the board looking to do new partnerships.
Really we see this as an infrastructure change going forward a longer term, and Robert.
About for you?
Well, instead of calling it stablecoin summer, I'm going to call it a tokenized security summer, but you know it's not cold at all.
I mean things are heating up very quickly.
You know, you see that with Invesco coming into the market in the US in a big way.
There's going to be other asset managers, you know, trying to break into this market as well.
You know, I think we're really at the beginning of, you know, most funds, most assets migrating on chain because they're more useful.
Yeah, and as we look ahead to not just Q2 but also beyond, we continue to watch what's coming out of the nation's capital in terms of the regulatory progress because we're all watching to see what happens in terms of legislation, but from an innovation.
Standpoint, what do you think is most important moving forward?
Yes, well, we already have all the raw ingredients in Washington, right?
So we have an SEC that's focused on enabling companies to leverage this new technology.
We have a Congress that's on the cusp of passing the Clarity Act, you know, we'll see.
But you know we have all the raw ingredients.
There's a tailwind, right?
Historically we've had some headwinds.
We've had some ups and downs, but right now, you know, squarely Washington is behind, you know, America using blockchain to make financial products and markets better.
And so I'm bullish regulatory clarity is absolutely critical because we can operate in gray areas and that's why we're very excited for what's hopefully going forward.
Well, Kathleen, as well as Robert, it was great having you join us today.
Thank you so much and we hope to have you back.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
