Tokenisierte Staatsanleihen: Warum BlackRock die ultimative RWA-Aktie ist

Once a crypto skeptic, BlackRock (BLK -1.32 %) CEO Larry Fink has changed stance on digital assets significantly, now recognizing Bitcoin (BTC + 1.09%) as a legitimate alternative asset.

Fink believes the leading cryptocurrency is useful for diversification, like gold. He has described Bitcoin as an “asset of fear” that investors turn to amid economic uncertainty or concerns about fiat debasement.

This represents a notable shift from Fink’s earlier dismissals, which he has acknowledged publicly. He stated he was wrong in past assessments of crypto’s legitimacy and that his views have evolved in response to market maturity, institutional demand, and infrastructure development.

Beyond Bitcoin, Fink has praised blockchain technology and its potential to modernize traditional markets with transparency and efficiency.

Tokenisierung von realen Vermögenswerten is his main focus, which he compares to transformative technological shifts like the adoption of the internet. He has publicly called for a rapid transition to tokenized finance, emphasizing that tokenization can reduce friction, lower costs, democratize access, and eventually unify on-chain investment processing.

Late last year, Fink stated the industry is at “the beginning of the tokenization of all assets.”

During BlackRock’s jüngster Gewinnaufruf, Fink doubled down on “tokenized money market funds” as the future of cash management, following the massive success of their own tokenized money market fund, BUIDL.

He noted that, despite capital markets growing larger and becoming more digital, cash won’t disappear; instead, it will become more important. Similarly, tokenizing traditional assets won’t reduce cash holdings; rather, it would increase them by creating an even greater need for cash.

“As global capital markets grow, cash is going to grow alongside it. So the base holdings of cash will be elevated as long as the global capital markets continue to grow. And if you overlay, if tokenization becomes more real and the opportunity to have a tokenized money market fund alongside tokenizing other assets, I actually believe you’re going to see probably above-trend holdings in cash.”

– Fink

Tokenizing money market funds makes cash programmable, tradable, and always available. Putting these low-risk, highly liquid, short-term debt securities on-chain makes cash more central as faster, larger, and more digital capital markets require bigger pools of cash. As Fink explained:

“As the capital markets grow and as more people’s wallets are in the capital markets, the role of the money market fund just grows. I think that is one of the foundational reasons why we continue to believe that money market holdings will continue to be quite large.”

BlackRock sees tokenization as inevitable, with money market funds serving as the bridge between TradFi and on-chain markets.

The Disruptive Tech: Tokenized Treasuries

The total value of real-world assets (RWA) tokenized now sits at $23.23 billion.

In 2022, RWA value surpassed the $1 billion mark for the first time. At the beginning of 2024, it stood below $2 billion, only to end the year above $6 billion. Then in 2025, the market saw an exponential jump, surging beyond $20 billion.

Tokenization refers to the process of putting real-world assets like fine art, real estate, stocks, cash, commodities, private credit, private equity, public equity, corporate bonds, and even intangible assets like intellectual property on-chain.

In this process, RWAs are represented on the blockchain using tokens to increase liquidity, enhance accessibility, and improve transparency.

Liquidity is increased by converting illiquid assets into fractional shares that can be bought and sold more easily. This fractional ownership lowers minimum investment thresholds, increasing accessibility and promoting financial inclusion.

Given that blockchain technology is borderless, tokenization allows for global access. Crypto platforms enable around-the-clock trading worldwide. Blockchain’s transparency and immutability enable verification of ownership rights and reduce fraud.

By streamlining asset transactions and eliminating intermediaries such as banks and brokers, tokenization also reduces costs and accelerates settlement.

Despite these benefits, which position tokenization as transformative for financial infrastructure, it continues to face challenges: a disparate legal environment, limited interoperability across different blockchain platforms, and security risks such as smart contract bugs and vulnerabilities.

The potential of tokenization, however, is huge. The market is expected to be worth trillions of dollars in the coming years.

This growth will be driven by stablecoins, which maintain a stable value by being pegged to fiat currencies like the US dollar. The total market cap of stablecoins has already grown past $310 billion, led by USDT and USDC.

Beyond stablecoins, another key driver is U.S. Treasuries, seen as the foundation of global finance.

By streamlining the buying and selling of assets by removing intermediaries such as banks and brokers, tokenization also reduces costs and accelerates settlement.

Despite its benefits, which position tokenization as transformative for financial infrastructure, it continues to face challenges, including a disparate legal environment, limited interoperability across different blockchain platforms, and security risks such as smart contract bugs and vulnerabilities.

The potential of tokenization, however, is huge, with the market expected to be worth multi-trillion dollars in the coming years.

This growth will be driven by stablecoins, which maintain a stable value by being pegged to a fiat currency like the US dollar. The total market cap of stablecoin has already grown past $310 billion, led by USDT and USDC.

Besides stablecoins, another key driver of the tokenization trend is the U.S. Treasuries, which are seen as the foundation of global finance.

“In our view, as tokenization continues to rise, so will the opportunity to access assets beyond cash and U.S. Treasuries via the blockchain,” believes BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, in its 2026 Thematic Outlook, where AI and energy infrastructure take center stage and crypto and tokenized assets are highlighted as important investment trends shaping markets this year.

The widespread adoption of stablecoins, combined with the growing demand for native yield opportunities, has led to U.S. Treasuries emerging as the leading candidate for large-scale tokenization.

Issued by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, these government-backed securities are the world’s safest and most liquid assets. They offer stability and risk-free yields and are key not just to investment portfolios but also to central bank policies.

The U.S. Treasury market, which has over $38 trillion in outstanding debt, is shaped by inflation expectations, shifts in interest rates, and the global demand for safe-haven assets.

Despite its vast scale and significance, its infrastructure is antiquated, with trades typically settling on a T+1 basis, creating counterparty risk and tying up capital. The settlement chain also involves various parties: clearing banks, custodians, depositories, and multiple brokers, adding cost and operational complexity. Moreover, retail participation in the market is limited.

In order to lower settlement times and costs, reduce counterparty risk, and improve operational efficiency, both crypto-native firms and traditional financial institutions have been increasingly tokenizing treasuries.

Moving the “boring” US Treasury bills onto the blockchain means the investor holds the token rather than a certificate or a brokerage account entry to signify their ownership. It also allows them to be traded 24/7, unlike traditional T-bills, which are not traded on weekends.

By representing government debt, such as T-bills or bonds, as tokens on a blockchain, these innovators have created a universally accessible asset that can serve as a store of value, instant collateral, a hedge against crypto’s volatility, and a source of native risk-free yield for the growing, risky on-chain economy.

As a result, the value of tokenized treasuries has now übertroffen $ 10 Milliarden. It was only in late March 2024 that tokenized treasuries first hit the $1 billion mark.

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This market is led by BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), boasting a value of $1.68 billion. Kreis (CRCL -1.33 %) USYC ($1.64 bln) and Ondo US Dollar Yield ($1.27 bln) are the only other funds with valuations over $1 billion. Another TradFi giant, Franklin Templeton, is also involved in tokenizing treasuries, with its OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund (BENJI) holding over 892 Mio. US$ im Wert.

Among these, BUIDL is the one known for its massive success, becoming the largest tokenized U.S. Treasury fund in less than two months.

The total value locked (TVL) in the fund is currently 1.95 Milliarden Dollar, up from less than $525 million at the beginning of last year. Launched in March 2024, BUIDL grew quickly with its TVL reaching $2.90 billion in May before falling to $2.1 billion in September. From there, it began its ascent back to $2.86 billion, only to fall under the $2 bln mark. With BUIDL tokens, investors get to earn a dividend yield directly on-chain, with $100 million already distributed in payouts.

BlackRock’s tokenized money market fund is issued on several public blockchains, with the SEC-registered broker-dealer Securitize as the transfer agent. Almost half a billion dollars of BUIDL’s market cap is hosted on Ethereum (ETH + 3.25%), which the asset manager noted in its new research is home to the majority of tokenized assets globally.

Besides Ethereum, BUIDL is issued on BNB (BNB + 2.19%) Chain (almost $504mln), Aptos (APT + 2.69%) ($291mln), Solana (SOL + 2.39%) ($175mln), Avalanche (AVAX + 3.44%) ($138mln), Arbitrum (ARB + 1.09%) ($31mln), Optimism (OP + 1.17%) ($26mln), and Polygon (MATIC + 3.51%) ($18mln).

Holding a dominant market share in the tokenized U.S. Treasuries and short-term instruments, BUIDL is widely used by institutional backends. It has also been accepted by major centralized exchanges like Binance, Crypto.com und Deribit as collateral for trading, enabling yield-bearing, regulated assets to directly support derivatives and margin positions.

So, tokenized treasuries evidently represent the clearest real-world use case for blockchain adoption at scale. And as they become foundational infrastructure, tokenized treasuries backed by BlackRock are poised to serve as the bridge connecting traditional finance to a 24/7, programmable global capital market.

The Investment Angle: BlackRock (NYSE: BLK)

When it comes to investing in the digital asset space, investors tend to focus on crypto startups due to high-return potential and early access to innovation. But the publicly traded BlackRock could offer investors a better alternative, as it quietly becomes the largest “decentralized” issuer of real-world value.

BLK isn’t just an asset manager anymore; it’s evolving into a “Tech Platform” for digital assets.

This shift builds on BlackRock’s existing investment and technology infrastructure. For starters, the company provides a range of investment management and technology services to both retail and institutional clients. Its vast product range includes equity, multi-asset, fixed income, and money market instruments.

Its products are offered directly and through intermediaries across a range of vehicles, including mutual funds, iShares exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and actively managed funds, among others.

BlackRock is actually one of the Big Four index fund managers, offering over 1,700 ETFs covering diverse asset classes. Its most popular ETF offerings, primarily through its iShares ETF platform, includeiShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV), iShares Core MSCI EAFE ETF (IEFA), and iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF (AGG).

One of BlackRock’s most notable and fast-expanding products, however, is iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), which is a spot Bitcoin ETF that has become wildly popular among investors. IBIT has attracted 68.33 Milliarden US-Dollar Nettovermögen und 62.9 Milliarden Dollar in Nettozuflüsse since its launch in Jan. 2024, making it one of the most watched crypto ETFs.

Most recently, BlackRock filed to launch another Bitcoin product, the iShares Bitcoin Premium Income ETF. The ETF would feature BTC, Cash, and shares of IBIT, giving buyers exposure to the cryptocurrency along with some yield.

In addition to Bitcoin, BlackRock has also launched the iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHA), which tracks the price of Ethereum (ETH) directly. Launched in June 2024, ETHA has captured $12.49 billion in net inflows and $9.98 billion in net assets.

Ethereum is currently the biggest beneficiary of the tokenization trend, underpinning more than 65% of tokenized assets, which, according to BlackRock’s report, may have “a use-case outside of purely speculative crypto trading” and may expand to private credit, structured products, and other markets.

In its study called “Could Ethereum Represent the ‘Toll Road’ to Tokenization?” BlackRock noted that while competing networks like Solana (SOL), Stellar (XLM), Avalanche (AVAX), Polygon (POL), Arbitrum (ARB), and the XRP Ledger make up the rest of the share, none of them comes close to Ethereum.

At Davos, BlackRock CEO Fink also noted that “we have more dependencies on maybe one blockchain,” but “those activities are probably processed and more secure than ever.”

He called for rapid tokenization on a single, standardized blockchain, warning that fragmented infrastructure could hinder adoption and raise risks. A universal blockchain platform, he argued, would deliver lower costs, faster transactions, greater transparency, and potentially even reduce financial corruption.

Tokenization is one of BlackRock’s key areas of focus. Fink predicts that everything from stocks to bonds will eventually be tradable on-chain.

“Every asset — can be tokenized,” Fink wrote in his annual letter to investors last year, noting that it would be a “revolution” for investing. He went further: “If we’re serious about building an efficient and accessible financial system, championing tokenization alone won’t suffice. We must solve digital verification, too.”

In addition to all of this, BlackRock offers technology services, including the proprietary Aladdin system, which is the backbone of the company’s transformation into a tech platform. Aladdin is an end-to-end risk management, trading, analytics, and portfolio management system used by the company and external clients like pension funds, insurers, and banks.

The platform handles asset data, risk modelling, compliance, execution, and reporting. More than $25 trillion in assets are managed globally through Aladdin.

Now, if we look at BLK’s market performance, it has been enjoying an uptrend over the last decade. In 2021, BlackRock’s stock price came close to hitting the $1,000 milestone only to fall to about $550 a year later.

Since then, BLK has rallied to go as high as $1,220 in mid-October last year. As of writing, BLK shares are trading at $1,121.54, up 4.48% YTD and 8.89% in the past year. It has an EPS (TTM) of 34.66 and a P/E (TTM) of 32.60.

BlackRock, which has a market cap of $174 billion, pays a dividend yield of 2.03%. Recently, the company increased its quarterly cash dividend by 10% to $5.73 per share, making it an attractive investment option.

In total, the asset manager returned $5 billion to its shareholders last year, including $1.6 billion in share repurchases. Another 7 million shares were recently authorized for repurchase under the existing repurchase program.

When it comes to the company’s financial position, BlackRock boasts a strong standing.

“BlackRock enters 2026 with accelerating momentum across our entire platform, coming off the strongest year and quarter of net inflows in our history,” said Fink. “BlackRock is at the forefront of some of the largest new growth channels across the industry – from private markets to wealth and 401(k), to active ETFs, to private markets data, to digital assets and tokenization.”

Anfang dieses Monats hat das Unternehmen berichtet financial results for the three months and year ended December 31, 2025, with its diluted EPS for the year being $35.31, or $48.09 as adjusted.

BlackRock’s full-year revenue increased by 19% thanks to strength across ETFs, private markets, systematic active equities, outsourcing, and cash, resulting in 12% annualized organic base fee growth in the fourth quarter.

However, quarterly profit fell due to one-time costs stemming from its recent acquisition spree. The firm also reported $106 million in net investment losses, mainly due to a non-cash mark-to-market loss on its minority investment in Circle. It still maintains about 1.1 million shares of the USDC stablecoin issuer’s common stock.

Notably, for the first time, BlackRock assets crossed the $14 trillion mark as it captured a record $698 billion in net inflows for the entire last year. In Q4, it attracted $342 billion in net inflows.

Meanwhile, as of Dec. 31, 2025, holdings in its spot Bitcoin ETF were 771,000, reinforcing the firm’s digital asset strategy. Fink noted:

“BlackRock is differentiated as a scale operator in public and private markets investing and technology, which is enhancing our positioning with clients worldwide. We’re a leader in public and private markets, and in technology and data. We’re a foundational player in both traditional and decentralized financial markets.”

All of this shows that BlackRock is no longer just an asset manager. It is actually emerging as the operating system for digital capital markets. As BlackRock embeds itself deeper into both traditional and on-chain finance, BLK offers exposure to the underlying infrastructure that institutions will rely on regardless of market cycles.

Zusammenfassung

While owning crypto means taking on the risks of price volatility, regulation, tech, and even custody, owning BlackRock offers exposure to recurring revenue, custody control, and core financial infrastructure, making BLK a highly attractive crypto player.

As the crypto market has matured and gained regulatory clarity, BlackRock has evolved from skeptic to vocal advocate. Its CEO now views Bitcoin as a legitimate alternative asset and tokenization as the future financial plumbing of global markets.

With over $14.04 trillion in AUM, the world’s largest asset manager is deepening its foothold in blockchain through its Spot Bitcoin ETF, Spot Ethereum ETF, and BUIDL Fund. Through these vehicles, BlackRock is becoming the largest regulated holder and administrator of crypto collateral and, crucially, is making that collateral programmable through tokenization.

In that context, the safest way to play the crypto boom may not be by owning the coins themselves, but by owning the company that controls the collateral powering the ecosystem.