Tokenized real-world asset (RWA) platform Ondo Finance is moving $95 million of assets to BlackRock’s brand-new tokenized fund BUIDL to allow instant settlements for its own U.S. Treasury-backed token (OUSG), Nathan Allman, CEO of Ondo Finance, said Wednesday in a Telegram interview with CoinDesk.
Until now, Ondo’s OUSG token was backed by BlackRock’s iShares Short Treasury Bond exchange-traded fund (ETF), which traded only during traditional market hours, opposite to crypto’s around-the-clock nature. The allocation allows Ondo to significantly speed up subscription and redemption time to instant settlement at any day from the T+2 days, an Ondo blog post read.
“Many investors have been so far hesitant to use OUSG because of the time it used to take to redeem, and given the 24/7/365 and volatile nature of crypto markets and the often sudden need for capital that arises from that,” Allman said in the interview. “OUSG will become significantly more usable as a store-of-value and collateral asset within the crypto ecosystem.”
Ondo has already transferred $15 million of OUSG backing assets to BlackRock’s BUIDL over the past days, and plans to move another $80 million by the end of Wednesday, Allman added.
Ondo’s action marks the first example of a crypto protocol leveraging asset management giant BlackRock’s tokenized fund offering, which debuted last week. The fund, represented by the Ethereum-based BUIDL token backed by U.S. Treasury bills and repo agreements, is targeted for white-listed, institutional clients and requires at least $5 million en az allocation. While the strict requirements prohibits smaller investors to invest in BlackRock’s BUIDL, it allows other platforms such as Ondo to leverage the fund for its own retail-facing offerings.