BlackRock launches tokenized funds for stablecoin reserves

BlackRock is expanding deeper into tokenized finance, this time targeting one of the fastest-growing opportunities created by U.S. stablecoin regulation: managing the assets that sit behind digital dollars.

The world's largest asset manager has introduced two blockchain-based money market products designed to qualify as reserve assets for permitted U.S. payment stablecoin issuers under the GENIUS Act.

The first, BlackRock Select Treasury Based Liquidity Fund, or BSTBL, is a tokenized share class of an existing BlackRock money market fund. Shares are available on Ethereum, giving institutional investors blockchain-based access to a traditional Treasury-focused liquidity product.

The second, BlackRock Daily Reinvestment Stablecoin Reserve Vehicle, or BRSRV, is a newly created money market fund designed specifically with stablecoin reserves in mind. It offers daily dividend reinvestment and is being made accessible across multiple blockchains. Securitize serves as its transfer agent and tokenization provider.

Stablecoin issuers generally need highly liquid, low-risk assets backing the tokens they put into circulation. Under the U.S. regulatory framework defined by the GENIUS Act, that means instruments such as cash and Treasury securities. For large asset managers, those reserve requirements create a new pool of institutional money to manage.

BlackRock has made clear that it wants a significant role in that market. The company already manages about $60 billion in reserves for Circle, the issuer of USDC, according to comments from BlackRock Chief Financial Officer Martin Small during its second-quarter earnings call.

That represents a substantial share of a stablecoin market now valued at roughly $300 billion.

BlackRock is not entering tokenized finance from scratch. In 2024, it launched the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund, better known as BUIDL, with Securitize. The tokenized money market fund has since grown to approximately $2.5 billion in assets and has increasingly been used within crypto markets as collateral.

BSTBL and BRSRV take the strategy a step further. Instead of simply putting an investment fund on a blockchain, BlackRock is positioning tokenized funds as part of the financial infrastructure supporting regulated stablecoins.

The opportunity has also attracted competitors. State Street, which carries an Alpha Score of 72 on AlphaScala's proprietary scale, Franklin Templeton, Invesco and other large asset managers are developing products aimed at the growing market for stablecoin reserves and tokenized cash.

Stablecoins are sometimes portrayed as competitors to traditional finance because they can move money outside conventional banking and payment networks. Their growth, however, also creates demand for some of Wall Street's most traditional products: Treasury securities and money market funds.

Tokenization adds another layer. Reserve assets themselves can increasingly exist in blockchain-compatible form, potentially allowing issuers to manage liquidity and settlement within the same digital infrastructure used for stablecoins.

BlackRock has argued to U.S. regulators that tokenized versions of eligible reserve assets should not face additional limits merely because they are recorded on a distributed ledger. The company maintains that credit quality and duration – rather than the underlying technology – should determine an asset's risk.

The stablecoin market is roughly $300 billion. BlackRock already manages $60 billion of that for Circle alone, the CFO said.