Asset manager BlackRock has filed to create digital ledger technology shares from one of the firm\u2019s money market funds, which will leverage blockchain technology to maintain a mirror record of share ownership for investors.<\/p>\n
The DLT shares will track<\/a> BlackRock\u2019s BLF Treasury Trust Fund (TTTXX), which may only be purchased from BlackRock Advisors and The Bank of New York Mellon (BNY), the firm said<\/a> in its April 29 Form N-1A filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.<\/p>\n The money market fund holds over $150 million worth of assets, invested almost entirely in US Treasury bills and cash.<\/p>\n BlackRock said that the shares \u201care expected to be purchased and held through BNY, which intends to use blockchain technology to maintain a mirror record of share ownership for its customers.\u201d<\/p>\n Unlike the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), DLT shares won\u2019t be tokenized but will instead be used as a transparency tool to verify ownership.<\/p>\n BlackRock will continue to maintain traditional book-entry records as the official ownership ledger.<\/p>\n BlackRock didn\u2019t propose a ticker or set a management fee for the DLT shares in its filing.<\/p>\n A minimum initial investment of $3 million worth of DLT is required for institutions seeking to purchase the digital shares. <\/p>\n BlackRock follows Fidelity\u2019s March 21 filing<\/a> to list an Ethereum-based OnChain share class, which seeks to track the Fidelity Treasury Digital Fund (FYHXX) \u2014 an $80 million fund consisting<\/a> almost entirely of US Treasury bills.<\/p>\n While the OnChain share class filing is pending regulatory approval, Fidelity expects it to take effect on May 30.<\/p>\n Asset managers have increasingly turned to blockchain to tokenize Treasury bills, bonds and private credit<\/a> over the past few years.<\/p>\n Related: <\/strong><\/em>BlackRock Bitcoin ETF buys $970M in BTC as inflows surge, boost market<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n The treasury tokenization market<\/a> is currently valued at $6.16 billion, led by BlackRock\u2019s BUIDL<\/a> at $2.55 billion, while the Franklin Templeton-issued Franklin OnChain US Government Money Fund (BENJI) secures over $700 million worth of real-world assets, according<\/a> to rwa.xyz.<\/p>\n Market caps of blockchain-based Treasury products. Source: <\/em>rwa.xyz<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Ethereum remains the chain of choice for tokenizing treasury assets, and currently houses over $4.55 billion worth, while the Stellar network and Solana round out the top three at $474.9 million and $274.5 million, respectively.<\/p>\n The potential of RWA tokenization has also been championed by BlackRock\u2019s CEO, Larry Fink, <\/a>who believes the technology could revolutionize investing.<\/p>\nWall Street heavyweights continue to explore blockchain use cases<\/h2>\n