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- 😳 At $245M, Blackrock is RWA’s Biggest Tokenizer… Almost
😳 At $245M, Blackrock is RWA’s Biggest Tokenizer… Almost
RWA World Newsletter - Mar 29, 2024
Ray Buckton
March 29, 2024
Last week, Blackrock kicked in the door to RWA… now it’s poised to take the crown of the largest tokenized fund on the market. 💹👑
It’s starting to feel like a new landscape out there – new participants are wasting no time making big waves on-chain. 🌊
🎯🔥 Rapid Fire Takeaways:
💰 BlackRock's Tokenized Fund Quickly Rakes in $245M, Right Behind Franklin Templeton's Older Offering
💱 Ondo Finance to Move $95M to BlackRock's Tokenized Fund for Instant Settlements for Its T-Bill Token
Even Ondo is giving a warm welcome to the BUIDL fund with a nearly nine-figure move. 🤝
Institutions are no longer coming… they’ve already arrived. Let’s greet them at the door, shall we? 👋🚪
⛓️ Welcome to On-Chain
The latest asset manager-gone-blockchain-darling Blackrock has seen its BUIDL fund soar to an AUM of $245 million in just one week, quickly closing in on Benjamin Templeton’s figure of $360 million. 🚀
This increase is as significant as the recent Bitcoin ETF, with inflow volumes turning heads in traditional media, as well as having on-chain implications. The emerging tokenized RWA sector is officially moving in tandem on the back of the news. Ladies and gentlemen, do we have a baby asset class? 👬👶
One thing is for sure: the inflows are mutual. Treasury tokenization giant Ondo Finance moved $95 million into the new BUIDL fund in a move that’s not all that surprising. After all, Ondo Finance offers exposure to Treasuries via… a Blackrock ETF. 😯
Now, they can offer exposure to the same underlying asset through a direct, on-chain fund via the same issuer, allowing for near-instant settlement and a much smoother experience for the OUSG token. The barriers between TradFi and DeFi grow thinner with each passing week.
Is the line thin enough for Forbes to use the RWA World platform? Apparently so! They echo our sentiment from last week’s newsletter issue on AI and RWA in their recent article. 😉
On-Chain Cleans Up? 🧽
On-chain natives are also getting their hands dirty, with DigiFT announcing its support for depository receipt tokens. Issued when users buy tokenized Treasuries, these receipts grant beneficial ownership to the underlying Treasury Bill, helping to remove the opacity of legal ownership of the underlying asset. 🔍
Expect the trend of clarifying underlying ownership to expand. It’s desperately needed in this industry. 🙏
After all, Barry Silbert of Grayscale is in hot social water for attempting to retain over $1 billion in customer funds by working the technicalities of the bankruptcy courts. Is Barry officially breaking bad? 😬
💪 Europa Flexes
Even if he is, Europe has been working to offset it by breaking good. The continent now has the supermajority of the world’s regulated digital assets custodied within its jurisdictional borders. 🗺️
With the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) finalizing the MiCA law, the Old World seeks to lock in that leadership position and reverse the multi-decadal trend of a declining proportional share of top-100 companies. 🔐
The Dutch have already started sinking their teeth into this new opportunity. The national stock exchange for middle-market companies, NPEX, announced a partnership with DUSK for a blockchain pilot. No wasted time here! 💶
And no front left unmanned – The Hague Conference on Private International Law is the first international legal body to start weighing in on what laws apply in international transactions. 🧑⚖️
That’s a major step for cross-border on-chain finance, which has so far been the realm of major institutions and global banks. Let’s see if Europe can set some standards and write some history. ✍️
🚤 Commodity Velocity
Commodities are moving on-chain at an exceedingly fast rate. We have three major movers in that category this week. 👇
Gold 🥇
Blockbuster news for Hong Kong retail investors, who can now purchase tokenized gold custodied in HSBC’s London vault. 🔑
If tokenized precious metals fit into your investment thesis, our friends at BlockApps just released the world’s first carbon-neutral silver token. 👏
Paired with tokenized carbon credits, this is the first truly sustainable precious metal brought to you by the folks who have been tokenizing real-world assets longer than… almost anyone. 🧠🌌
Gemstones 💎
Speaking of second-mover advantages, Oasis Pro has created a token on the Avalanche C-Chain to represent the Diamond Standard Fund. The token is currently only available to IRAs and institutional investors, with plans to potentially expand the offering. 📜
Why second-mover? Because Tiamonds has been working with LCX, bringing diamonds on-chain for over a year! 🤯
We recently spoke with the Director of Tiamonds, Steven, to discuss the nuances and benefits of tokenizing precious stones. 🤝
Uranium ☢️
Bloomberg calls the latest trend in uranium markets a “bottoming out on the nuclear future.” Now that’s a term we haven’t heard since the 70s!
The yellow cake is increasingly becoming a hot commodity, with soaring prices transforming long-defunct operations into suddenly online, profitable ventures. 💫
Still, uranium markets operate almost exclusively as contract markets—producers connect directly with consumers to negotiate terms manually. 🧓
That approach may work for certain resources, but highly regulated spicy rocks that are crucial for global energy security? Not so much – we’re excited by the work Uranium3o8 is doing to bring global uranium markets into the 21st century with tokenization. 💽
👁️ Institution Insights
The big names wouldn’t sit back and let Blackrock have all the fun, would they? 😉
Nomura just announced a digital asset fund for Polygon staking, with the goal of creating turnkey solutions for the at-scale staking of institutionally-held digital assets. 📊
After all, what’s institutional tokenization without the ability to retain the yield on the underlying digital asset? Nomura sees where this is going and is staking its claim on an infrastructure play via their Laser Digital investment arm. 🦾
Meanwhile, tokenization-loving Wisdom Tree was granted a trust license in New York – no easy feat for any organization. The license allows Wisdom Tree to hold tokens and mint stablecoins. ♟️
New York remains an immensely challenging jurisdiction for digital assets. Kraken left the Empire State in 2015 due to the stifling BitLicense – a standard absent from other US jurisdictions. But it seems times are changing, and the winds of tokenization may yet fill the global financial nexus’ sails. 🐙
Getting Swifty 🐖
Many observers of global finance are familiar with the SWIFT system. Responsible for 95% of global money movements, it’s the spinal cord of the world’s financial apparatus. 🌐
So when the organization promotes the concept of a universal shared ledger based on messaging, we listen. 👂
Let’s dissect:
SWIFT is actively interested in a unified global ledger
SWIFT is actively working with ChainLink on CCIP integrations
SWIFT is actively integrating DLT infrastructure in complementary ways
The only way we could be more bullish on tokenized real-world assets would be for… SWIFT to court 38 institutions to participate in the second round of its CBDC connector trials. ✅
Oh, it looks like they’re testing trade payments, FX, and liquidity-saving mechanisms during the trial, highlighting the CBDC interoperability may be further along than “just” Project Guardian, which itself is a powerhouse of an initiative. 🏋️
Well, that settles that. 🎀
🏠 Take Us Home
If home is where the heart is, we’d wager Blackrock’s new home is on Ethereum. 😊
Commodities are finding homes on-chain, too – everywhere we look, RWAs are taking the world by storm. 🌩️
Don’t miss out on the action! You’ll want to connect with the RWA World account on Twitter/X and LinkedIn for tokenization insights, conversations, and pre-release alpha. 🤫
It’s been an exciting week, and it’s likely only going to get more eventful from here! Make sure to get some rest and relaxation before the new week. 🏖️🚀