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Bank of America Signals Belated Institutional Push Into Tokenisation

  • Writer: Shawn Jhanji
    Shawn Jhanji
  • Jul 21
  • 3 min read
Bank of America has appointed Sonali Theisen as head of its global digital assets platform, alongside Adam Dixon as global head of digital asset transformation and Kevin Milsom as head of platforms AI transformation, according to Bloomberg reporting confirmed across multiple outlets on 17 and 18 July. The moves give America's second largest bank by assets a unified leadership structure for tokenisation for the first time, years after JPMorgan, Citi, BNY and State Street built out visible digital asset franchises of their own. Why this matters to UK founders and investors Bank of America's UK and European corporate and markets businesses sit alongside HSBC, Barclays and Citi as the banks most likely to determine how quickly tokenised deposits, collateral and settlement reach UK corporates and treasury teams. A bank of this scale finally organising itself around digital assets is a signal that tokenised infrastructure is moving from pilot to core banking strategy, the same shift HM Treasury's Wholesale Digital Markets Champion Chris Woolard is trying to coordinate through his 54 firm UK taskforce, which already includes several of Bank of America's peers. What happened Theisen will lead the global digital assets platform while continuing to oversee electronic trading and strategic investments across fixed income, currencies and commodities, coordinating with Dixon's enterprise wide blockchain remit. Dixon's brief covers tokenised deposits and stablecoins, digital collateral mobility, and cryptocurrency trading settlement and custody. Milsom, appointed to steer AI transformation across the bank's platforms, sits at the intersection of legacy banking infrastructure and the digital asset build out.

Bank of America has appointed Sonali Theisen as head of its global digital assets platform, alongside Adam Dixon as global head of digital asset transformation and Kevin Milsom as head of platforms AI transformation, according to Bloomberg reporting confirmed across multiple outlets on 17 and 18 July. The moves give America's second largest bank by assets a unified leadership structure for tokenisation for the first time, years after JPMorgan, Citi, BNY and State Street built out visible digital asset franchises of their own.


Why this matters to UK founders and investors


Bank of America's UK and European corporate and markets businesses sit alongside HSBC, Barclays and Citi as the banks most likely to determine how quickly tokenised deposits, collateral and settlement reach UK corporates and treasury teams. A bank of this scale finally organising itself around digital assets is a signal that tokenised infrastructure is moving from pilot to core banking strategy, the same shift HM Treasury's Wholesale Digital Markets Champion Chris Woolard is trying to coordinate through his 54 firm UK taskforce, which already includes several of Bank of America's peers.


What happened


Theisen will lead the global digital assets platform while continuing to oversee electronic trading and strategic investments across fixed income, currencies and commodities, coordinating with Dixon's enterprise wide blockchain remit. Dixon's brief covers tokenised deposits and stablecoins, digital collateral mobility, and cryptocurrency trading settlement and custody. Milsom, appointed to steer AI transformation across the bank's platforms, sits at the intersection of legacy banking infrastructure and the digital asset build out.


The appointments follow Bank of America's own description of its position: strong in US consumer deposits, wealth distribution through Merrill and the Private Bank, which reportedly held roughly 4.9 trillion dollars in combined client balances by the second quarter of 2026, and corporate banking relationships covering 96 per cent of the US Fortune 1000. Until now, that scale had not translated into a visible digital asset proposition to match JPMorgan's Kinexys platform, Citi Token Services, or the custody and asset servicing build outs under way at BNY and State Street.


What comes next


The bank has not set out a public product roadmap alongside the appointments, but the combination of remits Theisen and Dixon now hold points toward three likely priorities: extending tokenised deposits into 24 hour programmable payments for treasury clients, connecting digital collateral to BofA Securities' financing and markets businesses, and building embedded digital cash that links deposits, wealth and payments for consumer and small business customers. Each of these mirrors moves already made by competitors, suggesting Bank of America is playing catch up rather than setting new direction, though its distribution scale means any product it does ship will reach a very large client base quickly.


For UK observers, the appointments are worth watching alongside the domestic taskforce process. A US bank of this size organising its tokenisation strategy under two named executives makes it more likely that international banks operating in London will follow with similarly formal structures, which in turn affects how quickly UK corporates can access tokenised collateral and settlement services through their existing banking relationships rather than through standalone platforms.


Key takeaways


  • Bank of America has named Sonali Theisen head of its global digital assets platform and Adam Dixon global head of digital asset transformation, giving the bank unified digital asset leadership for the first time.

  • The bank has been less visible in institutional digital assets than JPMorgan, Citi, BNY and State Street, despite holding the largest US consumer deposit franchise and serving 96 per cent of the US Fortune 1000.

  • Likely priorities include tokenised deposits for programmable treasury payments, digital collateral linked to BofA Securities, and embedded digital cash across consumer and wealth channels.

  • The move lands alongside HM Treasury's 54 firm UK tokenisation taskforce, reinforcing the trend of major banks formalising tokenisation strategy rather than running informal pilots.

  • No public product roadmap has been announced yet; the appointments are a structural signal rather than a launch.


Sources: this story was verified against The Block, Bloomberg reporting, and Crypto Briefing.

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