- BlackRock’s BUIDL fund surpasses $1 billion in assets, highlighting the growing institutional interest in asset tokenization.
- BUIDL expands beyond Ethereum, integrating with multiple blockchains to improve accessibility and flexibility in digital asset investments.
BlackRock, in collaboration with Securitize, has effectively increased the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) to over $1 billion in assets under management (AUM), demonstrating that the asset tokenization trend is more than simply an experiment, but a significant movement in the investment sector.
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BlackRock and Securitize's $BUIDL fund surpasses $1 billion in assets under management. pic.twitter.com/bEGjLgwUra
— Whale Insider (@WhaleInsider) March 13, 2025
BUIDL’s Growth Signals a Shift in Institutional Adoption
BUIDL’s assets under management have skyrocketed in recent months, thanks in large part to the addition of $200 million from the crypto protocol Ethena. This move depicts the way blockchain technology is progressively merging with the traditional banking sector. Although asset tokenization was once only a futuristic concept, big companies are beginning to welcome it now.
BUIDL itself is a tokenized fund designed to provide exposure to securities such as US Treasury Bills, cash, and repurchase agreements. The fund was first accessible just on the Ethereum network. BlackRock has extended BUIDL’s reach to additional blockchains, including Aptos, Arbitrum, Avalanche, and Optimism via the Wormhole bridge, in order to provide flexibility and accessibility.
Now with tokenization, investors can get access to these assets with a far more efficient process than if past Treasury bill or bond investments had to be made via slow and costly traditional methods.
BlackRock and Strategic Expansion in the ETF Sector
Meanwhile, BlackRock is not only busy with BUIDL. Last February, CNF reported that the company converted its High Yield Municipal Fund into an active ETF, the iShares High Yield Muni Active ETF (HIMU), with assets worth $1.5 billion.
The integration of municipal bonds into this ETF shows BlackRock’s efforts to expand the scope of investment products based on government securities.
BlackRock, on the other hand, keeps developing its approach in the crypto space, including with Ethereum and Bitcoin ETP products. However, not all of BlackRock’s steps have gone smoothly.
The iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) saw an outflow of around $418 million on March 5, 2025. One could understand this phenomenon as a change in investor stance or profit-taking following the big run of Bitcoin at the start of the year.
Larry Fink’s Prediction and the Future of Crypto ETFs
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has not been silent in responding to this change. In a statement, he said that the price of Bitcoin would skyrocket to $700,000 if more institutional money set 2% to 5% of their portfolios toward this cryptocurrency. Although it seems ambitious, this forecast captures hope for the increase of institutional adoption of cryptocurrency.
This forecast also fits State Street’s estimate that by the end of this year, crypto-based ETFs will exceed the combined assets of North American precious metal ETFs. Should this occur, crypto ETFs will rank third among all asset classes in the $15 trillion worldwide ETF market, behind bonds and stocks.
BlackRock’s ultimate plan is to include Bitcoin in its model portfolio via the iShares Bitcoin Trust, which today holds a value of over $58 billion.
