BlackRock Goes Full Crypto—$150B Treasury Fund Heads to Blockchain

Wall Street’s sleeping giant just woke up swinging. BlackRock files to tokenize its flagship treasury fund—because apparently, even old-school finance can’t resist the siren song of immutable ledgers.

The Details:
The $150B behemoth would trade as blockchain-based shares, merging TradFi’s muscle with DeFi’s rails. No more settlement delays, no more middlemen clipping tickets—just cold, hard code.

Why It Matters:
When the world’s largest asset manager pivots to blockchain, even your Boomer uncle’s money market account starts looking like a smart contract waiting to happen. (Cue the ’but muh regulation’ handwringing.)

The Punchline:
They’ll still charge that 0.15% management fee—some traditions die harder than others.

BlackRock’s DLT Shares Aim to Modernize Ownership

BlackRock’s DLT shares, while not involving cryptocurrency investments, are designed to modernize ownership records and transaction processing.

Institutional investors will need to commit a minimum of $3 million for an initial purchase. However, subsequent investments will not carry a minimum requirement.

According to the SEC filing, the fund—formally known as the BlackRock Liquidity Funds Treasury Trust Fund—does not currently use blockchain technology in its operations.

However, BNY Mellon plans to track ownership of the DLT shares using a blockchain mirror record. As of 29 April 2025, the Treasury Trust Fund had assets totaling approximately $150.1 billion. This makes it one of the largest money market funds in the world.

The initiative aligns closely with comments made by BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, who has publicly endorsed tokenization as a transformative force in financial markets.

BlackRock is going all-in RWA

Today, BlackRock filed to tokenize shares of its $150B money market fund.

It already launched BUIDL last year, which has $2.3B+ in TVL.

RWA tokens will explode in 2025. pic.twitter.com/wYgktZg82I

— Cas Abbé (@cas_abbe) April 30, 2025

In his 2025 annual letter to shareholders, Fink wrote that tokenization “will revolutionize investing,” by enabling faster settlement times, reducing market friction, and unlocking capital that is currently tied up in slow-moving processes.

He also emphasized the democratizing potential of tokenization, such as fractional ownership, streamlined shareholder voting, and broader access to yield-bearing assets.

Despite this optimism, Fink acknowledged that identity verification remains a key hurdle before tokenized assets can become mainstream. Still, he believes that tokenized funds will eventually be as common as exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Financial Giants Jump on Tokenization Trend

BlackRock’s move follows similar efforts by other financial giants including JPMorgan, Franklin Templeton, and State Street, all of which are exploring blockchain to modernize fund operations.

The tokenization trend is rapidly expanding. London-based Calastone recently integrated Fireblocks’ blockchain infrastructure to allow fund managers to tokenize assets on its platform.

Meanwhile, Libre, a blockchain project focused on real-world assets (RWAs), announced plans to tokenize $500 million in Telegram-issued bonds on The Open Network (TON), offering institutional investors decentralized access to the messaging platform’s fixed-income products.

According to RWA.xyz, the market value of tokenized RWAs has surged to $18.9 billion—an 89% increase from the previous year—highlighting growing institutional interest in bringing traditional assets onto the blockchain.

Key Takeaways

• BlackRock has filed to launch tokenized shares of its $150B Treasury Trust Fund using blockchain technology.
• The DLT shares will be issued via BNY Mellon and aim to modernize fund ownership and transaction processing.
• The move aligns with growing institutional interest in asset tokenization, now a nearly $19B market.