How BlackRock’s New Fund on Ethereum Got a Very Crypto Welcome - Ep. 623

Unchained

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Fountain, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

On Wednesday, BlackRock, the world's leading asset management firm, announced the launch of a tokenized investment fund, the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity (BUIDL) Fund, developed in collaboration with Securitize.

Carlos Domingo, founder and CEO of Securitize, discusses the launch of the fund, which is native to the public Ethereum blockchain and aims to bring an institutional-grade cash management product to crypto institutions, offering faster token issuance, redemption, and transferability.

Learn more: What Is Real-World Asset (RWA) Tokenization? A Beginner's Guide

He also talks about how Blackrock has embraced crypto, how the launch of the fund was “front run” by crypto Twitter, and how Blackrock will deal with issues such as the fund being dusted with ETH tainted by sanctioned Tornado Cash ETH.

Show highlights:

• What the BUIDL fund is, its essence and objectives
• How the fund rewards its users, with a system similar to crypto airdrops
• Whether they were worried about regulatory aspects of bringing this product onchain
• Securitize's role in the partnership with BlackRock
• How much money flowed into the fund on the first day and who the target investor is
• Why BlackRock decided to build this product on Ethereum
• What BlackRock's attitude towards crypto is, according to Carlos
• How the launch of the fund was frontrun by crypto insiders
• How a wallet associated with the fund received unintended funds from North Korean tied wallets and whether Ethereum should implement a mechanism for addresses to approve funds that are sent to it
• Whether the contract is secure and what steps Securitize is taking to increase the safety of the users
• The roadmap for the partnership between BlackRock and Securitize

Thank you to our sponsors!

• iTrustCapital
• Polkadot
• Uniswap

Guest

• Carlos Domingo, Founder and CEO of Securitize
• Previous appearance on Unchained: Could Securitize Democratize Access to Different Asset Classes?

Links

• Previous coverage on Unchained of real world assets:
• The Catalysts for This Crypto Bull Market: AI, DeFi, Real World Assets?
• The Chopping Block: Will Tokenizing RWAs Finally Click This Time?
• MakerDAO Has Brought in Real World Assets. Is It Worth the Risk?

BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity (BUIDL) Fund

• The Block: BlackRock to launch tokenized investment fund with Securitize
• Unchained:
• BlackRock's Institutional Fund Wallet Receives Unsolicited ETH From Tornado Cash Within Hours of Launch
• BlackRock Receives Memecoins and NFTs After Putting $100 Million USDC Onchain

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