Ethena Labs mints $225M of Blackrock’s BUIDL tokens, now holding $1.29B

Ethena Labs added another $225 million worth of BlackRock’s BUIDL tokens on Mar. 25, according to Arkham Intelligence. 

Following this mint, Ethena (ENA) now holds a total of $1.29 billion in BUIDL tokens.  This valuation has boosted Ethena’s market share in the expanding tokenized U.S. Treasuries market. USDtb, Ethena’s yield-generating synthetic dollar, is at the heart of its strategy. 

USDtb provides investors with exposure to Treasury yields while maintaining on-chain accessibility. The token is currently backed by $1.4 billion in assets, 90% of which are BUIDL tokens, along with Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC), as per data from the platform’s website.

With an average yield of 4.34%, tokenized U.S. Treasuries have grown into a $5.2 billion market, according to data from RWA.xyz. The sector has been attracting more institutional players as blockchain technology improves settlement speeds and market efficiency. 

Officially known as the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund, BUIDL is a tokenized money market fund that was launched in Mar. 2024 in partnership with Securitize. It provides U.S. dollar yields through investments in cash, Treasury bills, and repurchase agreements. 

BUIDL has grown rapidly, surpassing $1.9 billion in assets under management and gaining a 37% market share of the tokenized U.S. Treasuries market. Its growth has outpaced that of rivals like Franklin Templeton’s On-Chain U.S. Government Money Fund ($692 million) and Hashnote’s Short Duration Yield Coin ($751 million).

On Mar. 25, BlackRock and Securitize announced BUIDL’s expansion to Solana (SOL), making it available on seven blockchains, including Ethereum (ETH), Aptos (APT), and Arbitrum (ARB). BUIDL is also becoming a key reserve asset for DeFi applications like Sky (formerly MakerDAO). 

Meanwhile, Fidelity Investments is getting ready to launch a tokenized U.S. money market fund and its own stablecoin. These developments signal the growing interest in integrating traditional finance with blockchain-based assets.