Ethena Labs Mints $225M BUIDL Tokens from Blackrock, Now Holds $1.29B Assets

Ethena Labs has acquired an additional $225 million in BlackRock's BUIDL tokens on March 25, as reported by Arkham Intelligence.

This new issuance brings Ethena's (ENA) total holdings of BUIDL tokens to $1.29 billion, increasing its presence in the burgeoning market for tokenized U.S. Treasuries. The foundation of Ethena's approach is USDtb, its yield-generating synthetic dollar.

ETHENA NOW HOLDS OVER $1B OF BLACKROCK BUIDL TOKENS

ETHENA JUST MINTED $225M BUIDL-I CLASS

USDtb offers investors access to Treasury yields while keeping them connected to the blockchain. As per data from the platform's website, USDtb is currently backed by $1.4 billion in assets, with 90% of those being BUIDL tokens, as well as Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC).

Tokenized U.S. Treasuries have expanded into a $5.2 billion market, with an average yield of 4.34%, according to data from RWA.xyz. The sector is drawing more institutional players as blockchain technology enhances settlement speeds and market efficiency.

The BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund, or BUIDL, is a tokenized money market fund that was launched in March 2024 in collaboration with Securitize. It delivers U.S. dollar yields through investments in cash, Treasury bills, and repurchase agreements.

BUIDL has seen significant growth, reaching over $1.9 billion in assets under management and capturing a 37% share of the tokenized U.S. Treasuries market. It has outperformed competitors like Franklin Templeton's On-Chain U.S. Government Money Fund ($692 million) and Hashnote's Short Duration Yield Coin ($751 million).

On March 25, BlackRock and Securitize announced BUIDL's availability on the Solana (SOL) blockchain, making it accessible on seven blockchains, including Ethereum (ETH), Aptos (APT), and Arbitrum (ARB). Additionally, BUIDL is becoming a crucial reserve asset for DeFi applications such as Sky (formerly MakerDAO).

In the meantime, Fidelity Investments is preparing to launch a tokenized U.S. money market fund and its own stablecoin, indicating the growing interest in merging traditional finance with blockchain-based assets.