Ondo Emerges as the Winner of BlackRock's BUIDL Fund, Raising Over $240 Million in 7 Days
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Ondo Emerges as the Winner of BlackRock's BUIDL Fund, Raising Over $240 Million in 7 Days
ONDO could be the "last chance" for retail investors to participate in the trillion-dollar RWA market.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Fu Ruheshi, Odaily Planet Daily
As the world's largest asset management firm, BlackRock successfully launched its spot Bitcoin ETF at the beginning of this year, raising over $1.3 billion in funds and quickly becoming one of the leading spot Bitcoin ETFs, second only to Grayscale in total Bitcoin holdings. The success of its Bitcoin ETF has prompted BlackRock to further expand into the crypto industry.
On March 20, BlackRock announced a partnership with Securitize to launch a tokenized asset fund—the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL). Within just one week of its launch, BUIDL attracted more than $240 million in capital. Notably, Ondo, a prominent project in the RWA sector, participated in the fund.
Following BlackRock’s announcement of the BUIDL tokenized fund, CoinGecko data shows that RWA-related crypto projects experienced significant price increases. For example, Ondo’s ONDO token surged over 130%, while XDC Network’s XDC token rose by more than 28.5%.
Why did the launch of BlackRock’s tokenized fund BUIDL have such a pronounced positive impact on the RWA sector?
In this article, Odaily Planet Daily will provide an overview of BUIDL, review key developments since its launch, and analyze its potential impact on the future of the RWA sector.
Overview and Recent Developments of BlackRock’s Tokenized Fund BUIDL
The tokenized fund BUIDL is issued on Ethereum through a collaboration between BlackRock and Securitize, and is directly managed by BlackRock Financial Management, Inc. BUIDL primarily invests in cash, U.S. Treasury bills, and repurchase agreements. Investors must qualify as “accredited investors” and receive BUIDL tokens equivalent in value to their investment. Each BUIDL token is pegged to $1. These tokens can be transferred via Securitize’s cryptocurrency wallet to other verified addresses; however, any recipient must also meet eligibility requirements.
Carlos Domingo, founder and CEO of Securitize, stated that the BUIDL tokenized fund serves three primary use cases:
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Catering to crypto companies seeking to manage funds on the blockchain;
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Serving as underlying assets for RWA projects;
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Acting as a stablecoin alternative that can be used as collateral for lending and trading.
It is important to note that the income generated from holding the BlackRock USD Institutional Fund is not registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). As a result, interest earned from staking BUIDL may not be listed on any cryptocurrency exchange platforms. In response, Domingo noted that the SEC has not yet issued guidelines regarding tokenization on blockchains.
Now nearly a month after its launch, BUIDL has attracted $286.35 million in assets according to data analysis by 21.co on Dune, placing it second only to FOBXX’s BENJI fund, which is built on the Stellar blockchain.
As shown in the chart above, Ondo Finance holds $198 million in the tokenized U.S. Treasury market, ranking third in market share. Notably, within a week of BUIDL’s launch, Ondo Finance invested over $95 million—accounting for more than 33% of BUIDL’s shares—and became the largest holder of the BUIDL fund.
According to blockchain explorer records, on April 1, the BUIDL tokenized fund made its first dividend distribution to eight investors. Among them, Ondo’s address 0x72B……63D received over 70,000 BUIDL tokens.
Subsequently, according to on-chain transaction records from Ondo, on April 3, Ondo Finance appeared to conduct its first redemption test, transferring 250,000 BUIDL tokens to Securitize’s address 0x878……200, which were then sent to a burn address and destroyed.
Since its issuance, BUIDL has completed most standard fund operations, including issuance, dividend payouts, and redemptions. Although the official annualized yield has not been disclosed, based on the amount and timing of dividend distributions, the estimated APY is approximately 5.3%, exceeding the yields offered by most RWA-based U.S. Treasury products.
ONDO May Be the Last Opportunity for Most Investors in the RWA Sector
Interest in the RWA sector has steadily grown since last year, with increasing discussions about RWA at numerous Web3 industry summits. However, compared to Western communities, Chinese-speaking communities have shown relatively less enthusiasm. One major reason is that most RWA products impose restrictions on investors from Chinese-speaking regions, making purchasing RWA products no easier than buying U.S. stocks in real life.
Does this mean retail investors are permanently excluded from the potentially trillion-dollar RWA market? Based on BlackRock’s launch of the tokenized fund BUIDL, Odaily analyzes that the ONDO token may become one of the few accessible entry points for retail investors unable to directly purchase RWA products to participate in the RWA wave.
Previously, most RWA projects relied on standalone SPVs (Special Purpose Vehicles) to manage user investments, but these often came with lock-up periods for deposits and withdrawals, limiting appeal to many Web3 investors. BlackRock’s BUIDL fund, however, opens a bridge between traditional finance and Web3—not necessarily for individual investors, but rather for existing RWA projects.
According to BUIDL’s operational model, investors receive an equivalent amount of BUIDL tokens and daily dividends upon investment, and can transfer tokens under eligible conditions. This streamlines the complex purchase and redemption mechanisms typical of RWA projects. Indeed, within a week of BUIDL’s launch, Ondo Finance replaced most of the underlying assets in its OUSG (tokenized U.S. Treasury) product with BUIDL.
Additionally, referring to Odaily’s previous deep dive article “Ondo Finance Explained: Successful Transformation, TVL Jumps into Top Three of RWA,” although the ONDO token has already seen substantial gains in this cycle, it was issued before Ondo’s pivot into RWA and thus has limited fundamental connection to current RWA operations. Nevertheless, the ONDO token has already captured strong narrative momentum and still holds room for growth. As a leading player in the RWA space, a rise in the ONDO token could symbolize broader progress in the RWA sector. Considering the large number of investors previously locked out of RWA products, Ondo Finance might represent the "last opportunity" for participation.
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