London Takes a Tokenised Venture Fund Live: Lingfeng, LSEG and Archax

A Hong Kong venture capital firm chose London to launch its tokenised Digital Venture Fund. The infrastructure that made it possible is now operational, and accessible to other managers.

On 21 April 2026, Lingfeng Capital, a Hong Kong-based venture firm founded in 2015 with a portfolio that includes Archax itself among its earlier-stage investments, launched its Digital Venture Fund (DVF) on the London Stock Exchange Group's Digital Markets Infrastructure platform. Archax simultaneously made the fund available in tokenised form, providing regulated digital issuance, secondary-market connectivity and custody. The launch was marked with a ceremonial market opening at the London Stock Exchange.

That sequence of names is worth slowing down for. A non-UK fund manager. A UK exchange operator's digital markets platform. The UK's first FCA-regulated digital securities exchange, broker and custodian. All operating together to deliver what the parties involved are calling, in Brian McNulty's phrasing as the Partner at Lingfeng leading DVF, "Venture Capital 3.0."

It is the most visible tokenised venture fund launch of 2026 to date. It happened in London. That is a market structure event, not a marketing one.

What Actually Launched

The Digital Venture Fund is a tokenised venture vehicle investing in early-stage fintech and digital infrastructure companies. Its strategy sits on Lingfeng's existing investment track record; the structural innovation is how investors can access it.

Two access rails operate in parallel. Traditional investors can subscribe through conventional channels and hold their interests in conventional form. Digital-native investors can subscribe through Archax and hold tokenised representations of the same fund interests. The two versions are interoperable. Investors holding the tokenised version retain optional access to secondary-market liquidity through Archax's regulated trading venue.

The DMI platform itself is LSEG's distributed ledger technology infrastructure for hosting private funds. It is designed to provide an institutional-grade environment for digital issuance and lifecycle management of private fund interests. Archax sits alongside as the regulated venue for issuance, secondary trading and custody.

This split between platform and venue matters. LSEG provides the rails for fund administration on-chain. Archax provides the regulated wrapper that makes those tokenised interests accessible to investors within FCA-supervised arrangements. Neither, on its own, would have been sufficient to support the DVF launch in this form. Together, they offer something that no other jurisdiction can yet match for tokenised private funds: a single set of regulated venues covering issuance, trading and custody.

Why London

Lingfeng could, in principle, have chosen Singapore, Hong Kong, Zurich or several other venues for the launch. The decision to use London is worth understanding on its own terms.

Archax holds FCA permissions across the digital securities lifecycle that no other UK firm currently holds in combination. It can issue, trade and custody digital securities under a single regulated permission set. LSEG's DMI platform was built specifically to provide DLT infrastructure for private funds, and the Lingfeng launch is a public flagship deployment. Together they offer something close to a turnkey institutional path.

UK regulatory progress in the months leading up to the launch added weight to that choice. The Digital Securities Sandbox continues to operate. PISCES, the regulated secondary market regime for private shares, has been live since June 2025 with four approved operators. Shortly after the launch, on 30 April 2026, the FCA published PS26/7, its policy statement on fund tokenisation, with immediate effect. The UK's regulatory architecture for tokenised finance is, by mid-2026, more comprehensive than that of most peer jurisdictions.

And the broader institutional pattern is unmistakable. The Lingfeng launch joins a sequence: Federated Hermes' UK-domiciled tokenised money market fund in October 2025 and Aviva's fund tokenisation project with Ripple in February 2026, followed in June 2026 by Baillie Gifford's Enhanced Yield Fund, a native tokenised UK OEIC. The UK is no longer in the position of having to argue that tokenised finance is real. The launches are real, the venues are real, the regulator has now finalised the rulebook for fund-side activity. The question is what scale the activity reaches.

What This Signals

Three things follow from the DVF launch that are worth tracking.

First, the architecture is now publicly demonstrable. Any other venture fund manager exploring tokenisation can point to a working precedent: LSEG DMI plus Archax, master-feeder structure, interoperable conventional and tokenised access. The negotiating overhead for the second mover is much lower than it was for the first.

Second, the cross-border dimension matters. Lingfeng is a Hong Kong firm investing through London infrastructure to reach a global investor base. That pattern is more interesting than a UK-domiciled manager choosing UK infrastructure. It suggests that London's tokenised fund stack is being valued internationally as a venue, not just as a domestic capability.

Third, the venture asset class is now within reach. Most prior UK fund tokenisation activity has clustered in money market funds and bond funds, where the operational case is cleanest. Venture capital is structurally harder. Capital draws down over time. Valuations are infrequent. Liquidity is limited. The DVF launch shows that these challenges can be addressed within a tokenised wrapper. It does not promise that they have been solved at scale.

The opportunity is not, contrary to some of the louder narratives, retail democratisation of venture capital. The DVF is positioned for institutional and professional investors. Tokenisation here is about distribution efficiency, optional secondary liquidity, and cross-participation between traditional and digital-native investor pools. It is plumbing improvement at the institutional layer, not a casino.

A non-UK venture fund manager chose London for the most visible tokenised VC launch of 2026 to date. That is the data point. The infrastructure that made it possible is now operational and available to other managers. What gets built on it next will say more about the UK's position in tokenised finance than any policy speech.

How we got here

LSEG launched its Digital Markets Infrastructure platform on 15 September 2025. Built with Microsoft and running on Azure, it is designed to cover issuance, tokenisation, distribution, post-trade settlement and servicing, with private funds as the first asset class and more planned. Archax and MembersCap were its first clients. The first transaction was a primary fundraise by MembersCap for MCM Fund 1, with Archax acting as nominee for a web3 foundation, and EJF Capital was onboarded as an early adopter.

When Lingfeng first announced the Digital Venture Fund, the launch was slated for March 2026. Archax was named as technical partner, covering token creation, trading and safekeeping, with optional secondary trading on its regulated exchange. The announcement quoted Brian McNulty of Lingfeng, Darko Hajdukovic, head of Digital Markets Infrastructure at LSEG, and Graham Rodford, chief executive and co-founder of Archax.

Nine days after the launch, the FCA published PS26/7, following its consultation CP25/28. It confirms that an on-chain transaction record can serve as the primary books and records for unit dealing, provided the firm has adequate resilience plans. Units in one share class can be recorded on more than one blockchain if holders' rights and charges are the same, and a new direct to fund dealing model applies to all authorised funds. The FCA also said it would set out its thinking on distributed ledgers in wholesale capital markets and seek views later in 2026.

What it means for UK founders

For a founder raising from a venture fund, a tokenised fund changes the investor side first. The fund's own investors may gain optional secondary liquidity in their fund units, while the startup's cap table and share documents stay as they are. Diligence, term sheets and shareholder agreements work in the usual way.

For founders building fund platforms, registers or investor tools, PS26/7 matters more directly. An on-chain record that counts as the primary register, and a dealing model that removes the manager from the middle of each subscription, are concrete product openings. PS26/7 is written for FCA authorised funds, so private fund structures need to be checked separately, and founders may want to take professional advice on which rules apply to a given structure.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Lingfeng Digital Venture Fund?

The Digital Venture Fund (DVF) is a tokenised venture vehicle from Hong Kong-based Lingfeng Capital, investing in early-stage fintech and digital infrastructure companies. It launched on 21 April 2026 on the London Stock Exchange Group's Digital Markets Infrastructure platform.

What roles do LSEG and Archax play in the Lingfeng Digital Venture Fund?

LSEG's Digital Markets Infrastructure platform provides the distributed ledger rails for issuing and administering private fund interests. Archax, the UK's first FCA-regulated digital securities exchange, broker and custodian, provides regulated digital issuance, secondary trading and custody for the tokenised version.

How can investors access the Lingfeng Digital Venture Fund?

Traditional investors can subscribe through conventional channels, while digital-native investors can subscribe through Archax and hold tokenised interests in the same fund. The two versions are interoperable, and the fund is positioned for institutional and professional investors rather than retail.

What is FCA PS26/7?

PS26/7 is the FCA's policy statement on fund tokenisation, published on 30 April 2026 with immediate effect.

Which other UK tokenised fund launches came before the Lingfeng fund?

Earlier UK examples include Federated Hermes' UK-domiciled tokenised money market fund in October 2025 and Aviva's fund tokenisation project with Ripple in February 2026. Baillie Gifford's Enhanced Yield Fund, a native tokenised UK OEIC, came later, launching on 22 June 2026.

Source: Future of Finance, Lingfeng, LSEG and Archax build a bridge between tokenised and traditional funds

Disclaimer

This article is provided for general information only and does not constitute legal, financial, or investment advice. The regulatory treatment of tokenised assets and digital securities varies by jurisdiction and continues to evolve. Readers should seek independent professional advice before making any financial, legal, or regulatory decisions.