BlackRock said its tokenized U.S. Treasury fund BUIDL will become tradable on Uniswap, marking the asset manager’s first move into DeFi. The firm also disclosed a strategic investment in Uniswap and said it bought an undisclosed amount of UNI. After the announcement, UNI jumped 25% to $4.11.
BUIDL expands from tokenized Treasuries into on-chain trading
Launched in 2024, BUIDL is currently the largest tokenized U.S. Treasury fund in the market, with nearly $2.2 billion in total value locked, according to rwa.xyz. The fund is backed 100% by U.S. Treasury bills and cash, giving investors yield on-chain.
Its listing on Uniswap allows investors to trade the tokenized fund in a peer-to-peer environment without using a traditional intermediary. For Uniswap, the addition pushes the platform beyond crypto-native assets and into tokenized government bond exposure.
UniswapX will handle pricing and blockchain settlement
BlackRock is working with Uniswap Labs and Securitize on the rollout. Securitize is handling the regulatory and compliance framework tied to tokenizing real-world assets. BUIDL shares will be made available through UniswapX, a trading system that sources quotes from approved market makers and settles the transactions on-chain.
Access will not be open to every user. Participants must first be pre-qualified and whitelisted through Securitize, which will facilitate the transactions. Under the structure described by the companies, qualified investors will be able to swap BUIDL 24/7 with approved market makers using stablecoins.
BlackRock points to closer links between tokenized funds and DeFi
Robert Mitchnick, BlackRock’s global head of digital assets, said the collaboration with Uniswap Labs and Securitize is a notable step in bringing tokenized assets and DeFi closer together. He added that integrating BUIDL into UniswapX advances interoperability between tokenized U.S. dollar yield funds and stablecoins.
Uniswap is one of the largest decentralized exchanges on Ethereum, where users can swap tokens directly from their wallets. With BUIDL now entering that system, the scope of on-chain real-world asset trading becomes broader.