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Executive Summary

• Introduction: On March 20, 2024, BlackRock, a prominent asset manager, expanded its presence in Web3 by collaborating with U.S.-based tokenization platform Securitize to issue the tokenized fund BUIDL (BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund). This follows the approval of its Bitcoin spot ETF, marking a significant step for mainstream cryptocurrency investment. The tokenized fund BUIDL represents traditional institutions leveraging public blockchain technology to enhance operational and capital efficiency, signaling a broader adoption of blockchain.

• Problems Addressed by Tokenized Funds: Traditional public offering funds, such as money market funds, involve multiple institutions for operations, leading to inefficiencies and high costs due to separate databases. Tokenized funds, issued as tokens on public blockchains, eliminate the need for centralized registries and reduce costs by providing real-time, traceable transaction records. They enable real-time atomic settlement and secondary market trading, improving capital utilization and offering higher returns. Tokenized funds also support diverse applications like staking and lending through smart contracts.

• Institutional Adoption of Public Chains: The DeFi landscape demonstrates blockchain’s advantages, but transitioning traditional financial capital to Web3 faces significant resistance. Fund tokens, with whitelist controls for KYC and AML compliance, showcase mainstream institutions exploring DeFi. Examples include Franklin Templeton’s FOBXX and WisdomTree’s WTSYX, which initially used blockchain for auxiliary accounting. BlackRock’s BUIDL marks a breakthrough by using public blockchains as primary accounting tools, with Securitize as a regulator-recognized transfer agent.

• BUIDL’s Design and Performance: BUIDL, issued on Ethereum as an ERC20 token, enables real-time, on-chain transfers within a whitelist. It supports interactions with smart contracts and provides real-time USDC redemption through Circle. As of July 9th, 2024, BUIDL’s AUM reached $502.8 million, held by 17 addresses, with significant participation from institutions like Ondo Finance. BUIDL facilitates DeFi integration, allowing stable real-world returns to flow into the DeFi world.

• Challenges and Future Prospects: Despite BUIDL’s success, significant regulatory and compliance challenges remain. The tokenization of assets faces conservative regulations globally, with restrictions on offerings to qualified investors. However, initiatives by BlackRock and Franklin Templeton are driving attention to the efficiencies of on-chain interactions and encouraging the development of new laws and standards.

Download the full report: Institutions Enter DeFi: The Current Status of BlackRock’s BUIDL

Introduction

On March 20, 2024, BlackRock, a leading asset manager, further expanded into Web3 by collaborating with U.S.-based tokenization platform Securitize to issue the tokenized fund BUIDL (BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund), following the issuance of its Bitcoin spot ETF. While the approval of the Bitcoin spot ETF brought cryptocurrency into the realm of mainstream investment as a new asset class, recognizing its status, the greater significance of the tokenized fund BUIDL lies in attempts by traditional institutions to leverage public blockchain technology to enhance operational and capital efficiency. This signifies a recognition and adoption of blockchain technology itself.

What Problems Can Tokenized Funds Solve Compared to Traditional Funds? 

The funds widely accessible to retail investors are generally public offering funds, which are subject to strict regulations due to their low investment thresholds, wide coverage, and large fund sizes. These are typically exemplified by money market funds. Generally, unless otherwise specified, the operational processes of these funds involve the collaboration of multiple institutions, each responsible for a part of the fund’s operations to improve efficiency through specialized operations, and to prevent any single entity from having excessive centralized power which can potentially lead to malicious acts. These typically include fund distribution channels (banks, brokers, financial advisors), fund administration, transfer agents, fund audits, custodians, exchanges, etc.

However, due to the multiple and separate databases maintained by these parties, significant friction and costs may arise. Typically, each fund’s subscription and redemption processes involve various institutions in this chain. Orders are transmitted manually or automatically, and settlements are completed through settlement systems, often taking several days to finalize a transaction.

With fund tokenization, fund shares are issued and traded in the form of tokens on public blockchains. Shares are directly delivered to investors’ wallets as tokens, and the shares and net asset values (NAVs) can be viewed publicly on the blockchain. All transaction records are accessible and traceable on the blockchain, recorded automatically in real-time, thereby eliminating the need for centralized registries and avoiding the costs associated with multiple verifications.

After tokenization, distribution platforms can use smart contracts to achieve real-time atomic settlement between fund share tokens and payment tokens (such as stablecoins), reducing the waiting time for investors. If the fund tokens have a secondary market on the blockchain, investors can directly enter and exit the market in real-time. This reduces the scale of redundant funds kept within the fund for redemptions, thereby improving capital utilization and creating higher returns. Investors can enjoy an efficient trading experience through a real-time settlement secondary market on the blockchain, avoiding the waiting periods of subscriptions and redemptions associated with traditional markets.

Additionally, tokenized funds can support and integrate more application scenarios, such as staking, lending, and other business scenarios through smart contracts, thus meeting more diverse user needs.

Institutional Attempts on Public Chains: From Auxiliary Tools to Main Ledgers

The DeFi scene fully demonstrates the advantages of blockchain. However, transitioning vast traditional financial capital from a complete Web2 system to a new system based on Web3 technology entails significant resistance that needs to be gradually advanced and overcome, with new practical solutions needing to be explored.

Unlike common cryptocurrencies, fund tokens generally have whitelist controls arising from KYC and AML compliance requirements. Each whitelist address corresponds to a user who has passed KYC on the fund or distribution platform, and transactions to non-whitelisted addresses cannot be executed. Issues such as transfer risks, fund loss risks, and transaction monitoring arising from free transfers between addresses are challenging to overcome without risk control solutions.

However, we notice that mainstream asset management institutions are also exploring the DeFi field, attempting to reform their products by leveraging blockchain technology. We can see the trajectory of evolution in their product designs.

In 2021, the American asset management giant Franklin Templeton issued the tokenized fund Franklin Onchain U.S. Government Money Fund – FOBXX. Initially, tokens were maintained by the transfer agent on a centralized database system with secondary records on Stella and Polygon. If there were conflicts between centralized and blockchain records, the centralized records would prevail. Investors traded fund share tokens through Franklin’s app Benji, with each investor assigned an on-chain address, but investors do not have control over the private key. In 2022, WisdomTree issued a similarly designed tokenized fund investing in short-term U.S. Treasuries on the Stella blockchain, named WTSYX.

The designs of FOBXX and WTSYX effectively used blockchain as an auxiliary accounting tool to make share records public without reaping substantial benefits.

In March 2024, BlackRock issued the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) through the tokenization platform Securitize, achieving significant breakthroughs. One reason is that Securitize, as a regulator-recognized transfer agent, can use public blockchains as the primary accounting tool to record ownership and changes in issued assets.

In-depth Look at BUIDL Design: Obstacles and Improvements

According to BUIDL’s issuance documents, the basic issuance information is as follows:

• Issuer: BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund Ltd. (BlackRock’s BVI entity, established in 2023)
• Registration Exemption: SEC Reg D Rule 506(c), Section 3(c)(7) (Reg D is an exemption for securities issuance, allowing fundraising from qualified investors without limits on the number of investors and the scale of fundraising)
• Registered Security Type: Pooled investment fund
• Investment Threshold: Qualified Purchasers.
• Minimum Investment Amount: $5M USD for individual investors; $25M USD for institutional investors
• Issuance Scale and Investor Scale: No upper limit

At issuance, the only distribution channel is Securitize Markets LLC, an SEC-registered broker-dealer. Additionally, Securitize LLC, related to Securitize, is an SEC-registered transfer agent, capable of registering and recording securities ownership on the blockchain.

It’s worth noting that this fund’s issuance used a newly registered BVI entity of BlackRock, rather than its regulated fund issuance entity. This arrangement is likely to mitigate risks and avoid impacting its licensed entities. According to sources, the SEC registration documents list four related personnel: Ian Pilgrim in Bermuda, Jennifer Collins in the Cayman Islands, W. William Woods in Canada, and Noëlle L’Heureux in California, USA.  Noëlle L’Heureux is a Managing Director at BlackRock with 32 years of experience at the company. The other three appear to be third parties.

BUIDL Product Design

• Trading Currency: USD
• Subscription and Redemption: Daily subscriptions and redemptions
• Investment Strategy: Primarily invests in short-term U.S. Treasuries
• Share NAV: 1 BUIDL = 1 USD
• Token Standard: Specially designed ERC20 with a whitelist mechanism; tokens can only circulate among whitelisted addresses, and transfers to non-whitelisted addresses will fail
• Yield Calculation: Calculated daily at 3:00 PM New York Time based on the shareholdings; yield is distributed through airdrop of new BUIDL tokens on the first working day of each month
• Redemption Rules: Daily redemptions based on holding BUIDL tokens at 1 BUIDL = 1 USD; direct redemptions through Securitize require sending tokens to a specified address, followed by burning BUIDL and completing USD redemption off-chain by 3:00 PM daily, generally settled on T+0. Accumulated income between distribution periods requires a “full redemption” operation, completed 2-3 working days after interest distribution (first working day of each month).

BUIDL is an ERC20 token issued on the Ethereum blockchain, enabling free circulation within the whitelist, and can enter whitelisted smart contracts. Interactions with non-whitelisted addresses will fail. For DeFi users, this straightforward step represents a significant breakthrough for traditional finance, indicating that large institutions are starting to recognize public blockchains as accounting tools for recording asset ownership transfers. Based on ownership, a series of rights will be recorded on the blockchain ledger, enjoying its transparency, efficiency, and traceability.

Through open transfer of asset ownership, BUIDL tokens can also interact with smart contracts, such as the Aave and Compound lending protocols, as long as they are whitelisted. This enables more diversified business scenarios and use cases.

By enabling the transfer function, BUIDL has to some extent enjoyed the advantages of a blockchain-based settlement system. One use case is provided by Circle. After the release of BUIDL, Circle introduced a contract that allows real-time exchanges of BUIDL for USDC and prepared a redemption reserve of 100M USDC to offer BUIDL holders the option of redeeming 1 BUIDL for 1 USDC in real-time.

This redemption option is provided by Circle and essentially constitutes an OTC transaction: Circle offers an exchange contract where users can transfer funds into the exchange contract, triggering the contract to transfer USDC from another EOA (Externally Owned Account) to the user’s address. All these steps are on-chain transactions, ensuring atomic settlement.

P1: Circle USDC redemption flow, Source: DigiFT

Initially, the EOA account holds a balance of 100M USDC. Since BUIDL tokens accrue daily interest through a centralized accounting system, any interest accrued between the last interest distribution and the transfer will be paid out in the next distribution period. After the exchange of BUIDL for USDC, Circle holds the BUIDL tokens and decides on subsequent actions. From the current on-chain information, it appears that Circle periodically redeems BUIDL through Securitize to exchange for USD, then mints USDC and replenishes the pool.

How is BUIDL doing after three months?

As of May 15, 2024, BUIDL’s AUM (Asset Under Management) has surpassed Franklin Templeton’s tokenized treasury fund FOBXX, making it the largest tokenized fund project. By July 9th, 2024, the total AUM reached 502.8 million USD. However, compared to the trillion-dollar scale of the traditional market, the overall tokenized treasury fund market, with a total scale of 1.81 billion USD (data source: RWA.XYZ, July 9th, 2024), still has significant room for growth.

Currently, BUIDL is held by 17 addresses, with the holdings distribution as follows:

P2: BUIDL holders pie chart, Source: dune.com, data as of July 9th

Among the 17 addresses mentioned above, 2 addresses belong to Ondo Finance (Securitize allows each customer to bind up to 10 on-chain whitelisted addresses), which is the largest holder with a total of 223 million BUIDL, valued at 223 million USD. The two addresses are 0x72, holding approximately 173 million BUIDL, and 0x28, holding approximately 50 million BUIDL. These serve as the underlying assets for its tokenized treasury fund product OUSG (AUM 223 million USD). Previously, the underlying assets were Blackrock iShares’ short-term treasury ETFs, which have been fully converted to BUIDL following its issuance. Currently, OUSG’s redemption operations are carried out in real-time USDC redemption through Circle’s contract.

Additionally, due to BUIDL’s partnerships with several crypto custody institutions, multiple addresses on the chain appear as EOA addresses with no historical transaction records. These may belong to traditional institutions invited by BlackRock and Securitize to try purchasing tokenized funds, with custody managed by these custody institutions’ accounts.

The USDC redemption pool provided by Circle currently has a balance of 80.6 million USDC. The main redeemer is Ondo Finance. Circle’s address (0xcf) also holds approximately 19.6 million BUIDL.

P3: BUIDL redemption fund pool USDC holding, Source: Dune.com, data as of July 9th

The Path to DeFi

Due to the investment threshold set by BUIDL, ordinary users find it difficult to directly obtain BUIDL. However, BlackRock’s issuance of stable, secure money market funds on the blockchain allows other institutions to use BUIDL as an underlying asset to bring stable real-world returns into the DeFi world.

A typical example here is Ondo Finance. As mentioned earlier, Ondo is the largest holder of BUIDL. By utilizing BUIDL and the redemption contract provided by Circle, Ondo Finance has enabled the rapid subscription and redemption of its money market fund product OUSG through USDC, while lowering the user threshold from an initial investment minimum of 5 million USD to 100K USD. Additionally, Ondo can collaborate with other DeFi protocols to further pass on the returns to the DeFi world. For instance, through DeFi lending platforms like Flux Finance, anonymous DeFi users can also gain real-world returns by providing stablecoins liquidity. This multi-layered packaging structure allows real-world returns provided by large traditional institutions to be channelled into the DeFi world.

Institutions Are Fully Entering? There Are Still Many Obstacles

Products like BUIDL enhance the efficiency of liquidity management in the current market by combining on-chain and off-chain designs, providing investors with channels to earn real-world returns on the blockchain. Through tokenization of funds, BlackRock, in collaboration with Web3 institutions such as Securitize, Circle, and Ondo Finance, allows Web3 institutions to obtain real-world returns in the form of tokens on public chains, avoiding complex on-off ramp processes, adding application scenarios and increasing fund utilization efficiency through smart contracts.

Essentially, what BUIDL is doing here is allowing tokens to be transferred on-chain without the involvement of centralized institutions. Behind the simple transfer function, compliance and legal costs are very high. It’s difficult to achieve transfers between different accounts, or even accounts with the same name, on traditional financial platforms. Generally, financial institutions only allow trading, subscription, and redemption on platforms. A month after BlackRock implemented the transfer function, Franklin Templeton’s FOBXX also implemented it, indicating institutional recognition of public chains as ledgers and a breakthrough at the product level. (The difference is that FOBXX holders do not have control over the private key, so they can only transfer within the platform and cannot truly operate on-chain).

Looking at the regulation of asset tokenization in different countries and regions, the current regulation is generally conservative: the United States has no clear legislation, so asset issuers rely on various exemption clauses, and BlackRock avoids affecting its regulatory-compliant entity by setting up a BVI SPV for issuance. In other regions such as Singapore, asset tokens are subject to whitelist restrictions and can only be offered to qualified investors. These restrictions and uncertainties hinder further entry of users and institutions into the Web3 domain.

Optimistically, explorations into tokenization by entities like BlackRock and Franklin Templeton have attracted significant attention from the financial sector, demonstrating the efficiency of on-chain interactions with real-world cases, while also driving regulation to promote the formulation of new laws and standards.

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机构入局 DeFi, 贝莱德的 BUIDL 现状如何？

摘要

• 简介：2024年3月20日，知名资产管理公司贝莱德（BlackRock）通过与美国代币化平台 Securitize 合作，发行了代币化基金BUIDL（BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund），进一步扩展其在Web3领域的影响力。这一举措紧随其比特币现货ETF的批准，标志着主流加密货币投资的重大进步。代币化基金BUIDL代表了传统机构利用公共区块链技术提升运营和资本效率，预示着区块链技术的更广泛采用。

• 代币化基金解决的问题：传统的公开发行基金，如货币市场基金，涉及多个机构的操作，导致由于独立数据库带来的效率低下和高成本。作为在公共区块链上发行的代币，代币化基金消除了对集中登记的需求，通过提供实时、可追溯的交易记录来降低成本。它们实现了实时原子结算和二级市场交易，提高了资本利用率并提供了更高的回报。代币化基金还支持通过智能合约进行质押和借贷等多种应用。

• 大型机构入局公链：DeFi领域展示了区块链的优势，但将传统金融资本转移到 Web3面临着巨大的阻力。具有KYC和AML合规白名单控制的基金代币展示了主流机构探索DeFi的努力。例子包括富兰克林邓普顿（Franklin Templeton）的FOBXX和WisdomTree的WTSYX，这些基金最初使用区块链进行辅助记账。贝莱德的BUIDL通过使用公共区块链作为主要记账工具，与作为受监管的转让代理的Securitize合作，标志着一个突破。

• BUIDL的设计和性能：BUIDL作为ERC20代币在以太坊上发行，支持在白名单内进行实时链上转账。它支持与智能合约的互动，并通过Circle提供实时USDC赎回。截至2024年7月9日，BUIDL的管理资产达到了5.028亿美元，由17个地址持有，包括Ondo Finance等机构的显著参与。BUIDL促进了DeFi的整合，使稳定的现实世界回报流入DeFi领域。

• 挑战和未来展望：尽管BUIDL取得了成功，但仍面临显著的监管和合规挑战。资产的代币化在全球范围内面临保守的监管，限制了向合格投资者的发行。然而，贝莱德和富兰克林邓普顿的举措正在引起对链上互动效率的关注，并推动新法律和标准的发展。

下载完整报告：机构入局 DeFi, 贝莱德的 BUIDL 现状如何？

2024 年 3 月 20 日，资管巨头贝莱德 （BlackRock） 自比特币现货 ETF 发行以来，进一步布局 Web3，通过和总部位于美国的代币化平台 Securitize 的合作，发行代币化基金 BUIDL（BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund）。如果说比特币现货 ETF 的通过，能将加密货币作为一种新型资产类型，纳入到广大合规资金的投资领域，是对加密货币作为一类资产的认可。代币化基金的更大意义在于，传统机构在尝试以区块链中的公链为底层的新技术，来提升运营和资本效率，是对区块链这项技术技术的认可和采纳。

相比于传统基金，代币化基金能解决什么样的问题？

投资者广泛接触到的基金一般为公募基金，由于门槛低、覆盖面广、资金体量大，以货币市场基金为例，此类基金都受到严格监管。若无特殊规定，一般来说，基金运作流程涉及多个机构之间的协同，每个机构负责基金背后运作的一部分流程，通过运营专业化提高效率，并避免单一实体权力过于集中，出现作恶的现象。全流程从前到后大概包括：基金分销渠道（银行、券商、财务顾问），基金行政管理，过户代理，基金审计，基金托管，交易所等。

但在流程中，各方数据库的不一致，造成了大量摩擦和成本。一般来讲，基金的每一笔申购和赎回都涉及到这条链路上的各个机构。其中会通过人工或自动化的方式，传递订单信息，再通过结算系统完成资金的交割，因此一笔基金的申购，往往需要数天才能结清。

通过基金代币化，基金份额通过代币的形式在公链发行和交易，份额直接代币形式进入投资者钱包，份额和净值可以在链上公开查看，所有交易记录在区块链上可访问和查询，实时、自动记录，消除了中心化登记的需求，也避免了多方来回核对的成本。

代币化之后分销平台可以通过智能合约，将基金份额代币和支付代币（如各类稳定币）之间实现实时的原子化结算，来减少投资者需要等待的时间。若基金代币在链上实现二级市场，投资者可以直接在二级市场实时进入和退出，可以降低基金内部为满足赎回保留的冗余资金规模，从而提高基金的资金使用效率，创造更高的收益；投资者可以通过链上实时结算的二级市场获得高效的交易体验，避免申购赎回的等待周期。

此外代币化的基金能够结合更多的应用场景，如通过智能合约支持质押、借贷等业务场景，从而满足更丰富的用户需求。

机构入局公链的尝试 – 从辅助工具，到主要账本

DeFi 场景将区块链的优势全面展现出来，但要将广阔的传统金融资金从 Web2 的一套完整的系统转移到基于 Web3 技术的全新系统，中间还面对巨大的阻力，需要逐步推进和克服，也需探索新的实践方案。

出于合规，特别是 KYC 和 AML 的需求，不同于我们常见的加密货币，基金代币通常会设置白名单机制，每个白名单地址对应通过基金平台 KYC 的用户，非白名单地址交易无法执行。如地址间自由转账功能，从中衍生出来的转账风险、资金丢失风险、交易监控等问题，在出现风控方案之前，会是难以突破的限制。

但我们注意到，主流资管机构也在往 DeFi 领域探索，试图结合区块链技术的特性改造自己的产品，我们可以在他们的产品设计中看到演变的轨迹。

2021 年，美国资管巨头 Franklin Templeton 发行了代币化基金 Franklin Onchain U.S. Government Money Fund – FOBXX。在最初的设计中，代币实际由转账代理机构在私有数据库系统上维护官方记录，在 Stella 和 Polygon 上做二次记录。若中心化记账和公链记账之间的记录出现冲突，会以中心化记账为主。投资者通过 Franklin 的 APP 来交易基金份额代币，每个用户都会分配到一个链上地址，但投资者并不能转移钱包中的代币。2022 年 WisdomTree 也在 Stella 区块链上发行了类似设计的投资于短期美债的代币化基金 WTSYX。

FOBXX 和 WTSYX 的设计，实际上仅将区块链作为辅助记账的工具，将份额记录公开，并没有获得实际上的好处。

2024 年 3 月，BlackRock 通过代币化平台 Securitize 发行的 BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund（BUIDL）则有了重大的突破，其中一部分原因在于，Securitize 作为监管认可的注册登记人（Transfer agent），能够以公链作为主要记账工具来记录发行资产的所有权和变更记录。

深入 BUIDL 设计 – 阻碍和改进

根据 BUIDL 发行文件，发行基础信息如下：

发行人：BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund Ltd. （BlackRock 的 BVI 主体，成立于 2023 年）

注册豁免：SEC Reg D Rule 506(c)，Section 3(c)(7)（Reg D 是证券发行的一种豁免条款，允许面向合格投资人募集资金，面向人数和募集规模没有限制）

注册证券类型：集合理财（pooled investment fund）

投资门槛：合格购买者 (Qualified Purchaser)。

最低投资金额：个人投资者500万 USD；机构投资者2500万 USD

发行规模和投资者规模：无上限

在发行时，唯一的分销渠道是 Securitize Markets, LLC，是 SEC 注册的证券经纪人。此外 Securitize 相关主体 Securitize, LLC 是 SEC 注册的过户代理人，能够在区块链上对证券的所有权做登记和记录。

值得注意的是，该基金的发行使用了 BlackRock 新注册的一个 BVI 主体，而非其常规基金发行主体，这一设置可能是出于风险的考量，尽量避免对合规主体产生影响。此外，SEC 注册文件中涉及的四位相关人员，分别是位于百慕大的 Ian Pilgrim，位于开曼的 Jennifer Collins，在加拿大的 W. William Woods 和在美国加州的 Noëlle L’Heureux。其中仅有 Noëlle L’Heureux 是 BlackRock 的董事总经理（Managing Director），在 BlackRock 工作长达32 年。其他三位应属于第三方机构。

信息源链接

BUIDL 产品设计

交易货币：USD

申购赎回：每日申购赎回

策略：投资于短期国债为主

份额净值：1 BUIDL = 1USD

代币标准：特殊设计的ERC20，有白名单机制设计，代币仅能在白名单地址中流转，向白名单外地址转账和交易将会失败

收益计算：每个工作日美国东部时间下午 3：00 根据地址持有的份额记录收益，每月第一个工作日通过增发 BUIDL 代币并空投的方式发放收益。

赎回规则：每日赎回，当日仅根据持有 BUIDL 代币数量按照 1 BUIDL = 1 USD 进行赎回；通过 Securitize 直接赎回会需要将代币发送到指定地址，随后在每个工作日下午三点将 BUIDL 销毁并完成链下 USD 的赎回操作，一般赎回为 T+0。距离上次派息之间累计的收益需要发起“完全赎回”操作，到利息发放（每月第一个工作日）之后 2-3 个工作日完成完全赎回。

BUIDL 是发行在以太坊区块链上的 ERC20 代币，实现了白名单之内的自由流转，也可以进入白名单的智能合约之中，和白名单之外地址的交互均会失败。对于 DeFi 用户来讲简单的一步，实际上是传统金融的重大突破，这意味着，大型机构开始认可公链，将其作为记账工具来登记资产所有权的转移、变更等操作，基于所有权的一系列权益也将记录在公链账本，享受其公开、透明、高效和可追溯等特性。

通过开放转账功能，BUIDL 一定程度上享受到了基于区块链结算系统的优势。其中一个用例由 Circle 提供，Circle 在 BUIDL 发布之后发布了允许实时 BUIDL 兑换 USDC 的合约，并准备了 1 亿 USDC 的赎回储备金，来为 BUIDL 持有者实现实时 1 BUIDL = 1 USDC 赎回的选项。

该赎回选项是 Circle 提供，本质上是一笔 OTC 交易：Circle 提供兑换合约（下图 Redemption 地址），用户将资金转入兑换合约，会触发合约将另一个 EOA 账户（下图 holder 地址）中的 USDC 转账到用户地址，这些步骤均为链上交易，原子化结算。

图1：Circle 为 BUIDL 提供的 USDC 赎回合约流程图

在设立之初该 EOA 账户有 1亿 USDC 的余额。在这里，由于 BUIDL 代币每日的利息是通过中心化记账方式实现的，若通过 Circle 合约兑换 USDC，在发行人 BlackRock 的视角是一笔转账，因此在上次派息和转账发生的时间之间每日记录的利息还会在下一次派息时间发放。在 BUIDL 兑换之后，Circle 会持有 BUIDL，后续操作由 Circle 决策。从目前链上信息来看，Circle 会不定期通过 Securitize 赎回 BUIDL 换回 USD，随后铸造 USDC 并补充到资金池中。

发行后三个月，BUIDL 现状如何？

2024 年 5 月 15 日，BUIDL 的 AUM （Asset Under Management，资管金额）超过 Franklin Templeton 的代币化国债基金 FOBXX，成为最大的代币化基金项目。截止到 2024 年 7 月 9 日， 总资管规模打到 5.02亿 USD。但相比传统市场万亿美金级别的体量，整体代币化国债类产品基金规模仅为 18.1 亿美金，还有极大的增长空间。（数据来源：RWA.XYZ，2024 年 7 月 9 日）

目前 BUIDL 共由17 个地址持有，各地址持有比例如下：

图2： BlackRock BUIDL 代币持有分布图（数据截至于 2024 年 7 月 9 日）

Securitize 允许每个客户绑定至多 10 个链上白名单地址。在上述 17 个地址中，其中 2 个地址属于 Ondo Finance， 为最大的持有方，共 2.23 亿 BUIDL，价值 2.23 亿 USD，两个地址分别为 0x72，持有大约 1.73 亿 BUIDL 和 0x28，持有 0.5 亿 BUIDL，为其代币化国债基金产品 OUSG 的底层资产（资管规模 2.23 亿 M USD），此前底层资产为 BlackRock iShares 的短期国债 ETF，在 BUIDL 发行之后全部转换为 BUIDL，目前 OUSG 的赎回操作通过 Circle 的赎回合约实现实时的 USDC 赎回。

此外，由于 BUIDL 和数家加密托管机构有合作，因此链上多个地址显示为 EOA 地址，没有历史交易记录，或由 BlackRock 和 Securitize 邀请合作的传统机构尝试代币化基金的购买托管在这些托管机构账户中。

Circle 提供的 USDC 赎回池目前有  8060 万 USDC 的余额，主要赎回方为 Ondo Finance，Circle 地址（0xcf）还持有约 1960 万 的 BUIDL。

图3： BUIDL USDC 赎回合约持有 USDC 数量，数据截止于 2024 年 7 月 9 日。数据来源：BlackRock BUIDL（Dune）

金融机构的 DeFi 化之路

由于 BUIDL 设立的投资门槛，普通用户很难直接获得 BUIDL。但 BlackRock 将收益稳定、 资产安全的货币市场基金在链上发行，可以让其他机构通过将 BUIDL 作为底层原料的形式，将真实世界稳定的收益引入 DeFi 世界。

在这里典型的例子就是 Ondo Finance。前面提及 Ondo 是 BUIDL 最大的持有方，通过 BUIDL 以及 Circle 提供的赎回合约，Ondo Finance 实现了货币基金产品 OUSG 通过 USDC 的快速申购和赎回，同时降低用户获取的门槛，从 500 万 USD 的起投门槛降低到 10 万 USD。同时 Ondo 可以和其他 DeFi 协议合作进一步将收益传递到 DeFi 世界，如通过 Flux Finance 这样的 DeFi 借贷平台，让匿名的 DeFi 用户也能够获取真实世界收益。这样层层包装的结构可以将传统大型机构提供的真实世界收益导向 DeFi 世界。

机构全面入场？面对重重阻碍

BUIDL 这样的产品通过链上链下结合的设计提高了货币市场基金的流动性管理效率，并为链上的投资者提供获取真实世界收益的渠道。BlackRock 通过基金代币化，配合 Securitize、Circle、Ondo Finance 等相关 Web3 机构，让 Web3 机构能够以公链上的代币形式获取真实世界收益，避免复杂的出入金流程，并通过智能合约实现互操作性增加应用场景和提高资金使用效率。

其实在这里 BUIDL 做的一件事情就是允许代币在不通过中心化机构操作的前提下，直接实现链上转账。简单的转账功能实际背后，合规、法律成本非常高。在传统金融平台中很难实现不同账户之间的转账，甚至同名账户都非常困难，一般金融机构仅允许平台上的交易、申购和赎回。BlackRock 实现转账功能之后的一个月时间，Franklin Templeton 的 FOBXX 也实现了该功能，表示机构对公链作为账本的认可，也是在产品层面的一个突破。（不同的是，FOBXX 持有者并没有地址私钥的控制权，因此只能在平台内进行转账操作，无法真正的链上操作）。

从各个不同国家和地区对资产代币化的监管来看，目前监管偏保守：美国没有明确立法，因此资产发行方只通过各种豁免条款，BlackRock 也通过设立 BVI 的 SPV 发行避免影响自己的合规主体。其他地区，如新加坡，资产代币有白名单的限制，并且只能面向合格投资人。这些种种限制和不确定性，阻碍用户和机构进一步进入 Web3 的领域。

乐观来看，诸如 BlackRock、Franklin Templeton 深入到代币化领域进行探索，极大程度吸引到了金融界的注意力，用真实案例展示链上交互的高效率，同时推动监管，来推进新的法律和标准的制定。

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