BlackRock’s tokenized money market fund, BUIDL, has marked a significant milestone as its assets under management (AUM) surpass $1.7 billion, with a recent expansion onto the Solana blockchain. Launched in March 2024 in partnership with Securitize, BUIDL has swiftly secured its position as a leader in the tokenized U.S. Treasury market.
On March 25, Securitize CEO Carlos Domingo announced the integration of BUIDL onto the Solana blockchain, calling it a “natural next step” in response to the growing demand for tokenized real-world assets. Solana is now the seventh blockchain to support BUIDL, following its initial launch on Ethereum and subsequent expansions to Aptos, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Optimism, and Polygon. Lily Liu, President of the Solana Foundation, emphasized the blockchain’s speed, low transaction costs, and vibrant developer ecosystem, making it a perfect fit for tokenized assets.
BUIDL, which currently holds a dominant 34% market share in the tokenized U.S. Treasury sector, has witnessed remarkable growth. As of March 2024, the fund boasts a market capitalization of $1.7 billion, a significant leap from its $500 million market cap in July 2024, representing a 240% increase in just seven months. Despite this growth, Ethereum-based treasuries still hold the majority of the market, with a total market capitalization of $3.6 billion, or 72% of the sector, according to RWA.xyz.
In the past 11 days alone, BUIDL attracted $700 million in new investments, propelling its AUM past the $1.7 billion mark. The fund first crossed the $1 billion threshold on March 13. Designed to offer returns on idle cash through short-term yield-bearing instruments like U.S. Treasurys, BUIDL operates in contrast to traditional money market funds, which are constrained by standard financial hours and slower settlement times. By tokenizing these assets, BUIDL enables round-the-clock trading.
BUIDL is pegged to the U.S. dollar and distributes daily accrued dividends to investors each month, facilitated through its partnership with Securitize. As of August 2024, the fund had distributed $7 million in dividends. The move to expand BUIDL into Solana follows the fund’s earlier multichain expansion in November 2023, where it integrated with Aptos, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Optimism, and Polygon to attract a broader base of investors.
With a vision of making off-chain assets more accessible, BlackRock’s BUIDL fund seeks to address inefficiencies in traditional money markets, according to Securitize COO Michael Sonnenshein. Competing in the rapidly growing space of tokenized real-world assets, Franklin Templeton’s OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund (FOBXX) has also made strides, amassing over $671 million in AUM since its launch in April 2021. FOBXX is available across eight blockchain platforms, including Stellar, Polygon, and Avalanche.
As tokenized real-world assets surpass a collective market capitalization of $5 billion, companies like BlackRock and Franklin Templeton are increasingly vying for a share of this expanding sector. BUIDL’s successful expansion and growing AUM signal a strong investor demand for blockchain-based financial products, positioning the fund for continued growth in the coming months.
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