BlackRock ‘BUIDL’ tokenized fund triples in 3 weeks as Bitcoin stalls

Update March 26, 2:36 pm UTC: This article has been updated to include quotes from Brickken CEO Edwin Mata.

BlackRock’s Ethereum-native tokenized money market fund has more than tripled in value over the past three weeks, nearing the $2 billion mark amid rising demand for safe-haven digital assets.

BlackRock’s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) saw an over three-fold increase over the past three weeks, from $615 million to $1.87 billion, according to Token Terminal data shared by Leon Waidmann, head of research at Onchain Foundation, a Web3 intelligence platform.

“BUIDL fund TVL exploded from $615M → $1.87B in just 3 weeks. The tokenization wave is hitting faster than most realize,” the researcher wrote in a March 26 X post.

BlackRock’s BUIDL fund is part of the wider real-world asset (RWA) tokenization sector, which refers to financial products and tangible assets such as real estate and fine art minted on the blockchain, increasing investor accessibility to and trading opportunities for these assets.

The surge in BlackRock’s fund reflects a growing institutional appetite for tokenized RWAs due to more regulatory clarity, according to Edwin Mata, co-founder and CEO of Brickken, a European RWA platform.

“The US is witnessing a notable shift toward a more crypto-friendly regulatory environment,” the CEO told Cointelegraph, adding:

“The SEC has recently concluded several investigations without enforcement actions, including those involving Immutable, Coinbase and Kraken. This trend suggests a move toward clearer regulatory frameworks that support innovation in the digital asset space.”

Related: Crypto markets will be pressured by trade wars until April: Analyst

BlackRock launched BUIDL in March 2024 in partnership with tokenization platform Securitize. In a recent Fortune report, Securitize chief operating officer Michael Sonnenshein said the fund aims to make offchain assets “unboring.” 

RWAs reached a new cumulative all-time high of over $17 billion on Feb. 3, following Bitcoin’s (BTC) decline below $100,000.

Related: Redemption arcs of 2024: Ripple’s victory, memecoins’ rise, RWA growth

RWAs near $20B record high amid Bitcoin’s lack of momentum

The total value of onchain RWAs is less than 0.5% away from surpassing the $20 billion mark, with a total cumulative value of $19.57 billion, according to data from RWA.xyz.

RWAs will likely rise to new all-time highs in 2025 as they attract investor interest amid Bitcoin’s lack of momentum, according to Alexander Loktev, chief revenue officer at P2P.org, an institutional staking and crypto infrastructure provider.

“Given the recent moves we’ve seen from major financial institutions, particularly BlackRock and JPMorgan’s growing involvement in tokenization, I believe we could hit $50 billion in TVL,” Loktev told Cointelegraph.

Traditional finance (TradFi) institutions are “starting to view tokenized assets as a serious bridge to DeFi,” driven by institutions looking for digital asset investments with “predictable yields,” added Loktev.

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