BlackRock's Tokenized Fund BUIDL Launches on OKX
BlackRock has introduced its approximately $2.5 billion tokenized money market fund BUIDL to the cryptocurrency exchange OKX, with Standard Chartered Bank holding the underlying assets.
The fund invests in U.S. Treasury bonds and repurchase agreements and can now be used as interest-bearing collateral on the OKX platform, replacing idle cash; currently, participation is limited to investors in the Middle East.
In terms of market mechanisms, funds from institutions and qualified investors are rapidly shifting from traditional cash and bank deposits to tokenized RWA products. BlackRock is expanding distribution through compliant channels, benefiting OKX and Standard Chartered Bank in yield + collateral scenarios, while pure fiat custody banks and idle stablecoin holdings face short-term pressure.
Source: Public Information
ABAB AI Insight
BlackRock previously launched the BUIDL fund in March 2024, attracting multiple institutional participants. This collaboration with OKX and the custody of underlying assets by Standard Chartered Bank continues its path of tokenizing traditional money market funds and pushing them onto crypto platforms since 2025, marking a transition of RWA from testing phases to mainstream applications as exchange collateral.
In terms of capital pathways, BlackRock mobilizes its asset management resources to convert Treasury bond/repurchase yields into on-chain programmable collateral, primarily raising funds from sovereign and institutional investors in the Middle East to expand the fund's scale and liquidity. The strategic goal is to capture the tokenized cash equivalent market while establishing infrastructure for more traditional funds to go on-chain in the future.
Similar cases include tokenized funds by Franklin Templeton and Ondo Finance launching on multiple platforms, as well as several Wall Street institutions introducing T-Bill products into DeFi collateral scenarios in 2025. Currently, BUIDL is in the expansion phase from a single fund pilot to integration within the global exchange ecosystem.
Essentially, this represents a restructuring of the industry chain: traditional money market funds are being tokenized and embedded into crypto trading processes, with the mechanism relying on the programmability of blockchain and the advantages of real-time settlement, combined with institutional dual demands for yield + liquidity, leading to a concentration of pricing power from traditional bank custody to asset management giants like BlackRock and compliant exchange platforms, while accelerating the deep integration of Wall Street infrastructure with the crypto market.