Nouriel Roubini, the economist who earned the nickname "Dr. Doom" for predicting the 2008 financial crisis, has long been one of Bitcoin's loudest detractors. He once called crypto a "self-fulfilling bubble." Now he's putting his own fund on the blockchain.
According to a Bloomberg report published June 23, 2026, Roubini is tokenizing the Atlas America Fund, a $17 million ETF listed on Nasdaq under ticker USAF. The tokenized product, USAFi, will be backed 100% by the fund's holdings -- U.S. Treasuries, gold, and REITs. It targets non-U.S. investors and will be issued under the supervision of Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA). The technology comes from Securitize, a tokenization platform backed by BlackRock.
Roubini hasn't changed his mind about crypto. He told Bloomberg that "most crypto is not sound money" and that the market needs "better reserve assets." Yet he now sees clear value in blockchain for traditional finance, calling its tokenization use case "increasingly practical."
"Technodollars" Paper Drops Same Day
Alongside the launch, Roubini and his Atlas Capital team published an academic paper introducing the concept of "Technodollars." They argue that blockchain products backed by real-world assets can deliver the efficiency of decentralization while relying on established values to reduce volatility.
Roubini's move comes as the RWA tokenization market explodes. Data from rwa.xyz shows global tokenized assets rose from about $6 billion in early 2025 to $32 billion. With JPMorgan and BlackRock pushing traditional products on-chain, Roubini's USAFi adds yet another heavyweight to the trend.