BlackRock’s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) has expanded its reach to multiple blockchain networks, including Aptos, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Optimism, and Polygon, according to a Nov. 13 statement.
This expansion is part of BlackRock’s strategy to strengthen its tokenization efforts, transforming BUIDL into a multi-chain asset. It enables users and applications within these blockchain ecosystems to access BUIDL more efficiently.
The fund, which primarily invests in US Treasuries, cash, and other liquid assets, will offer new users across these blockchain networks features such as on-chain yield, flexible custody, real-time peer-to-peer transfers, and on-chain dividend accrual and distribution.
Securitize CEO Carlos Domingo emphasized that the expansion aligns with the company’s vision to build a tokenization-based ecosystem. He pointed out that these new blockchains would enhance BUIDL’s potential, especially as the tokenization of real-world assets continues to gain traction.
He stated:
“With these new chains we’ll start to see more investors looking to leverage the underlying technology to increase efficiencies on all the things that until now have been hard to do.”
BNY Mellon, the fund’s administrator, is backing this expansion and will continue to act as its custodian across these additional blockchain networks.
BUIDL’s growth
According to the press statement, BUIDL became the largest tokenized fund by assets under management (AUM) less than 40 days after its launch on the Ethereum blockchain. According to DeFillama data, BUIDL’s market capitalization stood at $518 million at the time of writing.
The expansion to other blockchain networks opens up new investment opportunities for decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), digital asset firms, and other market participants.
Meanwhile, the expansion also brings new management fees for different networks. The fund’s users across Aptos, Avalanche, and Polygon PoS will be charged a fee of 20 basis points, while Arbitrum, Ethereum, and Optimism users will incur a 50-basis-point fee.
Additionally, BlackRock will receive quarterly fees from Aptos, Avalanche, and Polygon based on the average value of the relevant share class each quarter.