The world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, has launched what it states is its first tokenised money market fund to be issued on the Ethereum blockchain.
The firm has partnered with digital assets firm Securitize for the launch of the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund.
As part of the partnership, BlackRock has acquired a minority stake in Securitize which will include a seat on the board for BlackRock’s global head of strategic partnerships Joseph Chalom.
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The move comes on the back of BlackRock’s launch of a bitcoin spot ETF in February, following the decision of the Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) to drop its opposition to crypto spot ETFs.
The ETF has since gathered around US$15 billion in assets.
The size of the fund, registered in the Cayman Islands, has not been disclosed but there is a minimum investment size of $100,000.
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BNY Mellon will provide custody and fund administration services for the underlying assets while Securitize will act as transfer agent, tokenisation platform and placement agent.
The launch also comes a day after a study predicted a large rise in the launch of digital asset funds, following the SEC’s approval of spot bitcoin ETFs.
“This is the latest progression of our digital assets strategy,” said Robert Mitchnick, BlackRock’s head of digital assets.
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“We are focused on developing solutions in the digital assets space that help solve real problems for our clients, and we are excited to work with Securitize.”
“Tokenization of securities could fundamentally transform capital markets. Today’s news demonstrates that traditional financial products are being made more accessible through digitization,” said Securitize co-founder and CEO Carlos Domingo.
