BlackRock expands BUIDL with cross-chain integration to spread investment opportunities

BlackRock announced on November 13th that it was launching its tokenized BUIDL Fund on Aptos, Avax, Arbitrum, OxPolygon, and Optimism. The tokenized fund will expand its access to multiple blockchains through new share classes, said BlackRock’s press release. 

According to BlackRock, BUIDL’s expansion represented an evolutionary step for real-world asset tokenization. The asset manager said BUIDL could now be used within top-tier ecosystems’ blockchain-based financial products and infrastructure. Essentially, each ecosystem allowed its users and applications to interact natively with BUIDL, explained BlackRock. 

BlackRock opens up BUIDL with multi-chain expansion 

🌐 BlackRock Launches New BUIDL Share Classes Across Multiple Blockchains

We’re thrilled to announce that the @BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund, tokenized by Securitize, is expanding across @Aptos, @Arbitrum, @Avax, @Optimism, and @0xPolygon. This multi-chain… pic.twitter.com/lgsnUbVejc

— Securitize (@Securitize) November 13, 2024

BlackRock stated that it was expanding its U.S. Treasuries fund past Ethereum to add support for five other blockchains. The second largest asset manager by market cap said it would launch BUIDL share classes on the five ecosystems to provide near real-time 24/7 365 native interaction. According to RWA.xyz’s data, BlackRock dominated the $13 billion global RWA on-chain market, with about $2.3 billion in tokenized treasuries. BUIDL currently accounted for $526.19 million of this market behind Ondo at $652.99M. 

According to BlackRock’s statement, BUIDL became the world’s top tokenized fund in less than 40 days. BlackRock claimed the tokenized fund now enabled utility for cross-chain investors by offering optionality, investors’ access, DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations), and other digital asset-native firms. BUIDL achieved this by allowing developers to build on the BlackRock fund in their ecosystem of choice, added BlackRock.

“Real-world asset tokenization is scaling, and we’re excited to have these blockchains added to increase the potential of the BUIDL ecosystem”

–Carlos Domingo, Securitize CEO and co-founder

Domingo said Securitize wanted to take advantage of tokenization’s benefits by developing a digital ecosystem. He added that the new chains would attract more investors seeking to leverage BUIDL’s underlying technology for increased efficiencies. 

BlackRock’s expansion opens up opportunities for Ondo Finance’s products

Ondo Finance expressed their support for BlackRock and Securitize with the multi-chain expansion. According to Ondo, BUIDL backed their OUSG, which was the largest holder in BlackRock’s tokenized fund. Ondo Finance said they intended to diversify their BUIDL reserves across supported blockchains to facilitate liquidity across more ecosystems. 

Data from RWA.xyz revealed that Ondo Finance’s products were the most held tokenized U.S. Treasuries. Over 7K wallets held their products, and Ondo’s tokenized U.S. Treasuries assets accounted for 86% of the market share by number of holders, confirmed the data. Ondo had 7,118 token holders, followed by WisdomTree and Franklin Templeton at 675 and 487 token holders, respectively. The data showed that BlackRock was a distant 9th with only 27 token holders. Ondo Finance claimed they believed in global financial inclusion and democratizing access for qualifying clients.

However, Ondo cautioned that their products were not registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1993 and, therefore, unavailable to U.S. investors. The OUSG could not be offered, sold, or otherwise transferred to a U.S. investor unless some sort of exemption or exclusion existed. The issuers of OUSG, Ondo I LP, were also not registered under the U.S. Investment Company Act of 1940 as amended and thus could not sell or solicit for OUSG investors in the United States.