The January issue of our flagship Money Fund Intelligence newsletter, which was sent to subscribers Thursday morning, features the articles: "Yields Drop to 3.6%; Assets Break Through $8.1 Trillion," which discusses the decline in yields but continued jump in assets; "ICI: Worldwide MMFs Jump in Q3'25 to $12.7T; China $2T," which looks at the latest MMF statistics outside the U.S.; and "Top Money Funds of 2025; 17th Annual MFI Awards," which reviews the best performing MMFs of 2025. We also sent out our MFI XLS spreadsheet Thursday a.m., and we've updated our Money Fund Wisdom database with 12/31/25 data. Our January Money Fund Portfolio Holdings are scheduled to ship on Monday, Jan. 12, and our January Bond Fund Intelligence is scheduled to go out on Thursday, Jan. 15.
MFI's "Yields Drop to 3.6%" story says, "Money market mutual fund assets jumped by another $123.5 billion in December to a record $8.116 trillion, according to our monthly MFI XLS. In 2025, assets rose by $932.6 billion, or 13.0%. Assets have continued higher in January month-to-date, rising by $56.6B to a record $8.165 trillion (as of 1/6/26).
The story continues, "MMF assets increased by $132.8 billion in November, $142.1 billion in October, $105.2 billion in September and $132.0 billion in August. They rose by $63.7 billion in July, $6.7 billion in June and $100.9 billion in May. But MMFs decreased $24.4 billion in April. Assets increased by $2.8 billion in March, $94.2 billion in February, $52.8 billion in January, and $110.9 billion last December."
We write in the "ICI: Worldwide," story, "The Investment Company Institute's 'Worldwide Regulated Open-Fund Assets and Flows, Third Quarter 2025' shows that money fund assets globally rose by $430.2 billion, or 3.5%, in Q3'25 to a record $12.745 trillion. Increases were led by a sharp jump in money funds in the U.S. and China, while Ireland and Luxembourg also rose. Meanwhile, money funds in Korea were lower. MMF assets worldwide increased by $1.530 trillion, or 13.6%, in the 12 months through 9/30/25, and money funds in the U.S. now represent 57.4% of worldwide assets."
It adds, "ICI's release says, 'Worldwide regulated open-end fund assets, excluding assets in funds of funds, increased 5.0% to $84.90 trillion at the end of the third quarter of 2025. Worldwide net cash inflow to all funds was $821 billion in the third quarter, compared with $714 billion of net inflows in the second quarter of 2025. The Investment Company Institute compiles worldwide regulated open-end fund statistics on behalf of the International Investment Funds Association (IIFA), the organization of national fund associations. The collection for the third quarter of 2025 contains statistics from 44 jurisdictions.'"
Our "Top Money Funds of 2025" article says, "This issue recognizes the top performing money funds, ranked by total returns, for calendar year 2025, as well as the top funds for the past 5‐year and 10‐year periods. We present the funds below with our annual Money Fund Intelligence Awards. These are given to the No. 1‐ranked funds based on 1‐year, 5‐year and 10‐year returns, through Dec. 31, 2025, in each of our major fund categories -- Prime Institutional, Government Institutional, Treasury Institutional, Prime Retail, Government Retail, Treasury Retail and Tax‐Exempt."
It continues, "The Top-Performing Prime Inst fund (and fund overall) was BlackRock Cash Inst MMF SL (BISXX), which returned 4.46%. Among Prime Retail money funds, Morgan Stanley Inst Liq MMP Wealth (MWMXX) had the best return in 2025 (4.37%). (Our Crane 100 Money Fund Index returned 4.11% in 2025.)
MFI also includes the News brief, "Fed Cuts Funds Target to 3.5-3.75%." It says, "As expected, the Federal Reserve's FOMC cut interest rates by a quarter percent to a range of 3.5-3.75% on Dec. 10. See the release, 'Federal Reserve issues FOMC statement.'"
Another News brief, "Boston Fed Paper Examines Vulnerabilities of MM ETFs, Tokenized MMFs," comments, "The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston published, 'A Framework for Understanding the Vulnerabilities of New Money-Like Products.' It says, '[T]he recent emergence of new types of non-bank money-like products, such as stablecoins, tokenized money market funds (MMFs), and money market exchange-traded funds (MMETFs), could be transformative for finance.... [L]ike other money-like assets, such as uninsured deposits and MMFs, the new products can be susceptible to costly, disruptive runs and thus contribute to financial system vulnerabilities.'"
A third News brief, "JPM Treasury MM ETF Live," says: "A release, 'J.P. Morgan Asset Management Unveils New JPMorgan 100% U.S. Treasury Securities Money Market ETF (JMMF),' states, 'J.P. Morgan Asset Management ... announced the launch of the JPMorgan 100% U.S. Treasury Securities Money Market ETF (JMMF) on the NYSE Arca. JMMF is designed to offer investors current income, easy access to their funds, and low volatility of principal, while also providing the convenience and transparency of an ETF. As demand for active ETFs continues to grow, investors are seeking more strategies across asset classes that offer greater transparency and ... flexibility.'"
A sidebar, "JPMAM Tokenized MMF Live," says, "A release titled, 'J.P. Morgan Asset Management Launches Its First Tokenized Money Market Fund.' states, 'JPMAM ... announced the launch of its first tokenized money market fund, My OnChain Net Yield Fund ('MONY'), now available on the public Ethereum blockchain. Powered by Kinexys Digital Assets, the firm's industry-leading, multi-chain asset tokenization solution, MONY is a 506(c) private placement fund providing qualified investors the opportunity to earn U.S. dollar yields by subscribing through Morgan Money, the firm's ... platform for liquidity management. Morgan Money is the first institutional liquidity trading platform to integrate traditional and on-chain assets offering investors access to a full-range of money market products.'"
Our January MFI XLS, with December 31 data, shows total assets rose $123.5 billion to a record high $8.116 trillion, after increasing $129.3 billion in November, $141.5 billion in October, $100.4 billion in September, $129.9 billion in August, $69.0 billion in July, $10.1 billion in June and jumping $90.3 billion in May. MMFs decreased $26.6 billion in April and $4.6 billion in March. Assets increased $90.4 billion in February and $47.9 billion last January.
Our broad Crane Money Fund Average 7-Day Yield was down 20 bps at 3.48%, and our Crane 100 Money Fund Index (the 100 largest taxable funds) was down 20 bps at 3.58% in December. On a Gross Yield Basis (7-Day) (before expenses are taken out), the Crane MFA and the Crane 100 averaged 3.85% and 3.85%. Charged Expenses averaged 0.37% and 0.27% for the Crane MFA and the Crane 100. (We'll revise expenses once we upload the SEC's Form N-MFP data for 12/31/25 on Friday, 1/9.) The average WAM (weighted average maturity) for the Crane MFA was 38 days (unchanged) and the Crane 100 WAM was unchanged from the previous month at 40 days. (See our Crane Index or craneindexes.xlsx history file for more on our averages.)
