BlackRock's USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund, known as BUIDL, has surpassed $2.5 billion in total asset value, underscoring growing institutional appetite for tokenized financial products. The milestone comes as the broader on-chain real-world asset market reached $26.4 billion in 2026, up roughly 300% year over year.
A tokenized Treasury fund scales
BUIDL is a tokenized money market fund backed by US Treasuries, first launched in 2024. Its growth to more than $2.5 billion reflects how asset managers are using blockchain rails to represent traditional instruments such as government debt, allowing them to be transferred and settled on-chain.
Expanding access
BlackRock has worked to broaden where and how the fund can be used:
- The firm moved to bring its offering onto decentralized trading infrastructure for institutional traders.
- It filed additional tokenized fund structures with regulators as it expands the product line.
- The fund operates across multiple blockchain networks to widen access.
The wider RWA market
Tokenization refers to creating a digital representation of a real-world asset on a blockchain, an immutable digital ledger. Proponents argue this makes assets easier and faster to trade, transfer, lend and borrow. The category has expanded rapidly, with the tokenized RWA market surpassing $32 billion in 2026 and drawing participation from major institutions.
Who else is participating
BlackRock is far from alone:
- JPMorgan launched a tokenized money market fund on a public blockchain, open to qualified investors with a high minimum investment.
- Franklin Templeton has been an active participant in tokenized funds.
- Other asset managers have explored tokenized Treasuries and cash-equivalent products.
Why it matters
The growth of tokenized funds signals that large, established financial institutions increasingly view blockchain as settlement infrastructure rather than a fringe technology. For institutional investors, tokenized Treasury products can offer on-chain liquidity and the potential for faster movement of collateral.
Challenges remain, including regulatory clarity, interoperability across chains and the operational work of integrating tokenized assets into existing workflows. Still, BUIDL's continued growth, alongside a rapidly expanding RWA market, points to a maturing segment where traditional finance and blockchain infrastructure are converging.
From experiment to infrastructure
The rapid expansion of tokenized funds suggests the technology is moving past the pilot stage for many large institutions. Where tokenization was once viewed as a speculative experiment, it is increasingly treated as a practical way to represent traditional assets on-chain, potentially enabling faster settlement and new forms of liquidity. The participation of multiple major asset managers lends the trend credibility and signals that the underlying demand is institutional rather than purely retail.
Several factors will determine how far the segment can grow. Interoperability across different blockchains remains a technical hurdle, as does the integration of tokenized assets into the risk, accounting and compliance systems that institutions already rely on. Regulatory treatment of tokenized securities and funds will also shape adoption. If those pieces fall into place, tokenized Treasury and money market products could become a standard tool for managing institutional liquidity, with BUIDL's growth offering an early indication of the direction of travel.