The BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund has achieved a market capitalization of $500 million, making it the first tokenized treasury fund to reach this milestone. Launched less than four months ago, BlackRock BUIDL currently holds $502.8 million worth of tokenized treasuries, according to Ethereum block explorer Etherscan. The fund reached this milestone after Ondo Finance, a real-world asset tokenization firm, purchased more BUIDL to use as a backing asset for its OUSG token.
BlackRock’s BUIDL surpassed the Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund (BENJI) as the world’s largest tokenized treasury fund in late April, just six weeks after its launch on March 15. BUIDL has maintained its top position ever since. The price of BUIDL is pegged 1:1 with the U.S. dollar and pays daily accrued dividends directly to investors each month through its partnership with real-world asset tokenization platform Securitize.
Ondo’s OUSG is currently the largest holder of BUIDL, with $173.7 million. Stablecoin issuer firm Mountain Protocol also holds BUIDL to back its permissionless yield-bearing stablecoin, USDM. According to Dune Analytics data compiled by the parent firm of 21Shares, there is now $1.67 billion worth of tokenized treasury funds on-chain. Ethereum is the leading blockchain for tokenization, with over 75% of treasury funds, followed by Stellar at 23.9%.
In January, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink expressed his belief that blockchain tokenization could make capital markets more efficient. Boston Consulting Group estimates that blockchain tokenization will become a $16 trillion market by 2030. It’s important to note that tokenization is not limited to U.S. Treasurys but can also be applied to stocks, real estate, and other assets. However, the number of real-world asset transactions peaked in April 2024 and has since declined, according to Dune Analytics data from Crypto Koryo.
WisdomTree is another major asset management firm that is tokenizing real-world assets. Additionally, Ondo Finance, Backed Finance, Matrixdock, Maple Finance, and Swarm are among the blockchain-native firms operating in this space. The blockchain technology is transforming the real estate market, as highlighted in the magazine article “Block by block: Blockchain technology is transforming the real estate market.”