Executing through its fixed income platform, the firm purchased €3 million of “unsecured” bonds from Société Générale through the European Investment Bank. The deal was transacted in “security tokens” using the Ethereum blockchain protocol.

It underscores how traditional asset firms are dipping their toes into decentralised finance waters.

Laurence Arnold, AXA IM's head of innovation, said blockchain has the power to disrupt part or even the entire asset management value chain, bringing benefits over the long term. The transaction is part of "carrying out tests" on the changing ecosystem that asset managers are being presented with, the firm said. "We believe this could improve the customer experience by accelerating the treatment of financial transactions and facilitating the exchange and storage of data," Arnold said.

AXA IM manages around €879 billion in assets, €577 billion of which are ESG aligned.