Circle debuts way to trade BlackRock tokenized fund shares for USDC

Circle’s new smart contract to allow holders of BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund to redeem shares for its stablecoin

article-image

CryptoFX/Shutterstock and Adobe modified by Blockworks

share

Holders of BlackRock’s first tokenized fund will now be able to transfer their shares to receive USDC.

Transfers will be possible on the secondary market via new smart contract functionality, stablecoin issuer Circle said Wednesday. This will allow sellers of the shares to remain holders of digital dollars.  

Circle’s new proposition comes after BlackRock launched its BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund, also known as BUIDL, last month. 

The offering from the world’s largest asset manager — with roughly $10 trillion under its control — was designed to allow qualified investors to earn US dollar yields by subscribing to the fund via Securitize Markets, a company focused on tokenizing real-world assets.

Read more: Who’s the better bitcoin salesman: Larry Fink or Michael Saylor?

Robert Mitchnick, BlackRock’s head of digital assets, said the new product marked “the latest progression of our digital assets strategy.”

Tokenizing physical and financial assets — issuing digital representations of real estate or debt securities, for example, on a blockchain — has gained more steam in traditional finance circles over the past year or so. 

A proof of concept by banking giant Citi in February tokenized a private equity fund issued by Wellington Management. Fellow traditional finance player JPMorgan used a decentralized application in October to facilitate a collateral transaction between BlackRock and Barclays after tokenizing shares of a money market fund.

Read more: Citi the latest TradFi player to test out asset tokenization

Circle co-founder Jeremy Allaire said in a Thursday statement that tokenizing assets solves for various investor pain points. 

USDC enables investors to move out of tokenized assets at speed, lowering costs and removing friction,” Allaire added. “We’re thrilled to provide this functionality to BUIDL investors and deliver the core benefits of blockchain transactions via USDC availability to investors.”

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink had previously touted the potential of tokenized securities — in 2022 calling it “the next generation for markets.”

The asset management giant launched BUIDL after bringing to market a spot bitcoin ETF in January. 

That BlackRock fund — the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) — is the fastest-growing new ETF of all time, reaching $18.5 billion in assets under management as of market close Wednesday. 


Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Flashnote Template Presentation (2).jpg

Research

With the recent election, it’s clear that there will be a meaningful shift in crypto regulations and legislation. Trump is likely as pro-crypto as a president can be. He launched (multiple) of his own NFT collections and is launching an Aave wrapper called World Liberty Fi. He has also spoken out and mentioned that he wants to make the United States "the crypto capital of the planet" and transform it into the "Bitcoin superpower of the world". He proposed creating a strategic national Bitcoin stockpile alongside support from Senator Cynthia Lummis, promising to retain 100% of all Bitcoin held by the U.S. government. More importantly, we’re likely to see deregulation across the board in a lot of industries, with crypto being one of them - as Trump has committed to keeping the crypto market largely unregulated. Crypto, DeFi in particular, has historically been knee-capped by overreaching and hostile governmental agencies and regulation by enforcement, as evidenced by the plethora of Wells notices and lawsuits over the past few years. With Donald Trump winning the presidency, Republicans taking control of the Senate, and being on the verge of securing the House, we think it’s likely that crypto realizes positive regulatory clarity. Below, you can find our analysts’ takes:

article-image

Researcher Justin Drake’s Beam Chain proposal aims to transform Ethereum’s consensus layer with zk proofs and post-quantum cryptography

article-image

Gunzilla’s Theodore Agranat said that blockchain technology helps “enhance’ gamer experience

article-image

BTC continues to smash expectations as it holds near $90,000

article-image

Inflation is higher than it was in 2016, and the Fed is just at the beginning of its rate-cutting cycle

article-image

Bitwise’s Matt Hougan expects BTC to hit $100,000 by the end of the year and continue upward in 2025

article-image

Midwest Blockchain Week showed the depth of talent available at US universities while focusing on how memecoins could bring back the retail investor