U.S. Treasury funds worth more than $1 billion now exist in Ethereum, Polygon, Solana and other blockchains, helped in part by the recent launch of the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund.
BlackRock's product, designated "BUIDL," was launched on Ethereum on March 20 and currently boasts a market capitalization of $244.8 million. According to Etherscan, four deals to the fund totaling $95 million during the week bolstered the fund, making it the second-largest tokenized government securities fund.
According to data compiled by parent company 21Shares' Dune Analytics panel, BUIDL is only ahead of Franklin Templeton's 11-month-old Franklin OnChain US Government Money Fund (FOBXX), which holds $360.2 million in US Treasury bonds.
The panel shows that $1.08 billion in U.S. Treasury bonds has now been tokenized in 17 products.
The latest payment of $79.3 million into the BlackRock fund was made by real-world asset tokenization company Ondo Finance, which will enable instant settlement for its own US Treasury-backed token, OUSG. According to Etherscan, the company has raised a total of $95 million in deposits through four transactions .
Ondo Finance currently holds a 38% stake in BUIDL, noted Tom Wan, research strategist at 21.co in a March 27 X post.
BUIDL's price is pegged 1:1 to the U.S. dollar and a daily accrued dividend is paid directly to investors every month. It was launched on Ethereum via the Securitize protocol.
In its Dune review panel, 21.co described tokenized government treasury bonds as more attractive from both a risk and return perspective than stablecoin yields, given the current high interest rate environment.
