BlackRock’s BUIDL fund has shattered expectations, crossing the $1 billion assets under management milestone in March 2025. The tokenized U.S. Treasury fund surged 56.4% in just 30 days. That’s not a typo. In under a year, BUIDL transformed from a $245 million experiment into the world’s largest tokenized fund. And guess what pushed it over the edge? A cool $200 million allocation from Ethena.
Traditional finance meets crypto. Weird, right? But it’s happening. BUIDL launched in March 2024, a partnership between BlackRock (yes, the world’s largest asset manager) and Securitize. It’s designed for institutional investors, not regular folks looking to get rich quick. Sorry.
When Wall Street embraces blockchain, the suits aren’t inviting you to the party. This is big money playing with bigger tech.
The fund isn’t confined to just one blockchain, either. While $825.4 million sits on Ethereum, BUIDL has expanded across multiple chains including Avalanche, Aptos, Polygon, Optimism, and Arbitrum. Wormhole makes the cross-chain transfers possible. No blockchain tribalism here. The multi-chain approach leverages smart contracts to automate processes and ensure complete transparency throughout the ecosystem.
Daily dividends. Intra-day redemptions. Reduced counterparty risk. The perks are obvious for institutions. Plus, those 24/7/365 peer-to-peer transfers? Banks could never.
Institutional adoption is growing faster than anyone predicted. The fund offers daily returns to qualified investors who meet certain criteria. Companies use BUIDL for treasury management. It backs stablecoins like Ethena’s USDtb. Traditional finance entities dip their toes into DeFi. The use cases multiply daily. The fund yields an impressive 4.5% annually for investors seeking stable returns in the digital asset space.
The broader impact? The tokenized U.S. Treasury market now exceeds $4.4 billion. BUIDL competes with Franklin Templeton’s FOBXX and offerings from Ondo Finance. It’s finally proving that real-world assets on-chain aren’t just a pipe dream.
Looking ahead, BlackRock plans to expand to new blockchain ecosystems. More use cases are coming. The shift toward blockchain-based financial instruments is accelerating, not slowing down.
Is this the future of finance? The numbers don’t lie. One billion dollars can’t be wrong. Traditional finance is being rebuilt block by block. And BlackRock—once a crypto skeptic—is now leading the charge.
