By Chris Hollingworth 
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, the USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), has experienced remarkable growth in recent weeks, nearly tripling in value to approach the $2 billion milestone. According to data from Token Terminal, the fund’s total value locked (TVL) surged from $615 million to $1.87 billion over just three weeks, signaling a significant uptick in demand for safe-haven digital assets.
Leon Waidmann, the head of research at Onchain Foundation, a Web3 intelligence platform, highlighted the rapid expansion of BlackRock’s BUIDL fund, noting that the tokenization trend is gaining momentum at a faster pace than anticipated. This growth is indicative of the broader real-world asset (RWA) tokenization sector, which involves the digitization of financial products and tangible assets like real estate and fine art on the blockchain, making these assets more accessible to investors and creating new trading opportunities.
The increase in BlackRock’s fund value reflects a growing institutional interest in tokenized RWAs, driven in part by improved regulatory clarity. Edwin Mata, the co-founder and CEO of Brickken, a European RWA platform, pointed out that the United States is witnessing a shift towards a more crypto-friendly regulatory environment. Mata highlighted recent investigations by the SEC into companies like Immutable, Coinbase, and Kraken that concluded without enforcement actions, signaling a positive trend towards clearer regulatory frameworks that support innovation in the digital asset space.
BlackRock launched the BUIDL fund in March 2024 in partnership with Securitize, a tokenization platform. Michael Sonnenshein, the chief operating officer of Securitize, emphasized the fund’s mission to make off-chain assets more dynamic and engaging for investors. The RWA market experienced a record high of over $17 billion on Feb. 3, following a decline in Bitcoin’s price below $100,000.
According to data from RWA.xyz, the total cumulative value of on-chain RWAs is on the verge of surpassing the $20 billion mark, standing at $19.57 billion. Alexander Loktev, the chief revenue officer at P2P.org, an institutional staking and crypto infrastructure provider, predicted that RWAs could hit $50 billion in TVL in 2025. Loktev noted the increasing interest from major financial institutions like BlackRock and JPMorgan in tokenization, suggesting a strong growth trajectory for the sector.
As traditional finance institutions embrace tokenized assets as a bridge to decentralized finance (DeFi), there is a growing demand for digital asset investments with predictable yields. Institutions are actively exploring opportunities in the tokenization space, driven by the need for innovative investment avenues in the evolving digital asset landscape.
