Ethena Labs Adds Another $225M Worth of BlackRock's BUIDL Tokens

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

Ethena Labs has become a dominant force in the emerging tokenized U.S. Treasuries market, largely due to its strategic focus on yield-generating synthetic dollar, USDtb.

According to Arkham Intelligence, Ethena (ENA) has added another $225 million worth of BlackRock’s BUIDL tokens, bringing its total holdings to $1.29 billion as of Mar. 25.

ENA INCREASED ITS HOLDINGS OF BUIDL TOKENS BY ANOTHER $225M AS OF MARCH 25, ACCORDING TO ARTKHAM. THE FIRM NOW HOLDS $1.29B IN BUIDL TOKENS.

Ethena’s market share has been steadily growing, and its synthetic dollar token, USDtb, is a key component of this success. USDtb offers investors exposure to Treasury yields while maintaining on-chain accessibility, a combination that has attracted institutional attention.

The token is backed by $1.4 billion in assets, with 90% in BUIDL tokens, along with Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC), according to data from the platform’s website.

With an average yield of 4.34% and a total market size of $5.2 billion, tokenized U.S. Treasuries have been a hot topic in crypto circles.

The sector has seen increasing interest from institutional players as blockchain technology improves settlement speeds and market efficiency compared to traditional financial systems.

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

The fund has experienced rapid growth, now boasting over $1.9 billion in assets under management and a 37% market share of the tokenized U.S. Treasuries sector.

For perspective, Franklin Templeton’s On-Chain U.S. Government Money Fund holds around $692 million, and Hashnote’s Short Duration Yield Coin has about $751 million in assets.

Earlier this month, BlackRock and Securitize announced that BUIDL will be expanding to Solana (SOL), making it available on seven blockchains in total, which also includes Ethereum (ETH), Aptos (APT), and Arbitrum (ARB).

Moreover, BUIDL is becoming a key reserve asset for decentralized finance (DeFi) applications like Sky (formerly MakerDAO), further expanding the role of tokenized Treasuries in the crypto ecosystem.

Meanwhile, Fidelity Investments is preparing to launch its own tokenized U.S. money market fund and stablecoin, signaling continued integration between traditional finance and blockchain-based assets.