The BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL)

The BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), tokenized in collaboration with Securitize and initially launched on Ethereum, is expanding to additional blockchains including Aptos, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Optimism, and Polygon.

Enhanced Accessibility

Each blockchain addition enables respective applications to natively interact with BUIDL, enhancing access for investors, DAOs, and digital asset-native firms. This allows developers to build on the fund within their preferred ecosystems, according to a Wednesday statement from Securitize. The tokenized fund provides on-chain yield, dividend accrual, and near real-time peer-to-peer transfers.

Securitize CEO and co-founder Carlos Domingo stated, "We wanted to develop an ecosystem that was thoughtfully designed to be digital and take advantage of the advantages of tokenization. Real-world asset tokenization is scaling, and we're excited to have these blockchains added to increase the potential of the BUIDL ecosystem. With these new chains, we'll start to see more investors looking to leverage the underlying technology to increase efficiencies on all the things that until now have been hard to do."

Administration and Custodianship

BNY will continue to act as the fund administrator and custodian for BUIDL on Ethereum as well as on these additional blockchains.

The Growing Market for Tokenized Government Securities

Franklin Templeton’s OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund (FOBXX), represented by the BENJI token, was the first U.S.-registered fund to utilize a public blockchain for transactions and share ownership recording, launched in 2021. It currently operates on Aptos, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Stellar, and Polygon.

However, BlackRock’s BUIDL quickly dominated the tokenized government securities niche, becoming the largest fund in less than 40 days after its March launch. As of now, BUIDL has grown to account for $517 million in assets under management, equivalent to about 22% market share in the $2.3 billion market, according to data from asset management firm 21.co, parent company of bitcoin exchange-traded fund provider 21Shares.

The BENJI product remains the second-largest, with $403 million in assets under management, as reported by 21.co.