On-chain money market funds have grown nearly tenfold since 2023, but the Bank for International Settlements warns their adoption brings new liquidity and contagion risks. Tokenized money market funds are emerging as one of the most important yield-bearing assets on public blockchains, offering money-market returns and securities-level protections that stablecoins can’t provide, according to a new report from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). According to the bulletin, tokenized money market funds now hold nearly $9 billion in assets, up from about $770 million at the end of 2023. The BIS warned that as these tokenized Treasury portfolios become a key source of collateral in the crypto ecosystem, they also bring new operational and liquidity risks. Tokenized money market funds are blockchain-based representations of traditional money market portfolios, providing investors with onchain access to short-term, interest-bearing assets, such as US Treasurys. Read more
Ethereum leads tokenized institutional alternative funds with $1 billion in value, accounting for more than half of the market. Tokenized institutional alternative funds (IAF) surged 47% in the last 30 days, reaching a total value of $1.74 billion, according to data from real-world asset (RWA) tokenization tracker RWA.xyz. The data showed that all protocols except Libre Capital had percentage increases in the last 30 days. Centrifuge led the growth, expanding its market cap by 252% to $704 million. This gave the issuer a 40.4% market share for IAFs. Apart from IAFs, Centrifuge also had almost $400 million in tokenized US Treasury products, bringing its total value locked (TVL) to over $1 billion. This allowed Centrifuge to join BlackRock’s BUIDL fund and Ondo Finance to surpass the $1 billion RWA milestone. Read more
Tokenized stocks are nearing an inflection point that may lead to an $1.3 trillion market opportunity, according to Binance Research. Tokenized stocks may be approaching a tipping point as investor demand for blockchain-based financial products surges, potentially accelerating the adoption of traditional assets onchain. Tokenized stocks, which are part of the growing real-world asset (RWA) tokenization sector, reached a $370 million market capitalization by the end of July, according to a Wednesday Binance Research report shared with Cointelegraph. The lion’s share, $260 million, was attributed to Exodus Movement (EXOD) shares issued through Securitize. Excluding this figure, the market capitalization of tokenized stocks rose to $53.6 million, marking a 220% monthly increase since June. Read more
The nascent real-world tokenized assets track prices but do not provide investors the same legal rights as holding the underlying instruments. Tokenized stocks and private equity may face several legal challenges, as the emerging real-world asset (RWA) sits in a gray zone that does not grant holders the same legal rights as traditional asset owners, according to industry executives and attorneys. In an email to Cointelegraph, John Murillo, chief business officer of fintech company B2BROKER, said investors should understand the fundamental attributes of any prospective tokenized equity instruments, including any dividend streams, profit-sharing arrangements, or whether the tokenized RWAs simply provide capital appreciation to the holder. The executive said: “There is no direct claim on company assets, no voting rights, and no access to internal financial information,” Murillo continued. Read more
Tokenized US government debt used as collateral in leveraged trading exposes crypto markets to further geopolitical and liquidity risks. The growing use of yield-bearing tokenized US Treasury products as collateral for leveraged crypto trading creates new pathways for risk transmission across markets, increasing the likelihood of cascading effects on decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols. Tokenization is the process of converting real-world assets into digital tokens on a blockchain. In the case of US Treasurys, these tokens represent onchain claims to government debt, offering an alternative comparable to money market fund shares. The current market capitalization of tokenized US Treasurys stands at nearly $7.4 billion. According to a June report from rating service Moody’s, although short-term liquidity funds are low-risk assets, they are not riskless: Read more
Moody’s finds growing institutional demand for tokenized money market funds, citing benefits in liquidity, compliance and operational efficiency. Tokenized short-term funds, a new class of digital financial products bridging traditional and decentralized finance, have grown to reach $5.7 billion in assets since 2021, according to a new Moody’s report. The credit rating service sees growing interest from traditional asset managers, insurers, and brokerages looking to offer clients access between fiat and digital markets. “Tokenized short-term liquidity funds are a small but rapidly growing product,” notes a June 3 report shared with Cointelegraph. These funds, typically backed by US Treasurys or other low-risk assets, operate similarly to traditional money market funds but use blockchain to issue and manage fractional shares, enabling real-time settlement. Data from the Federal Reserve shows that US money market funds held approximately $7 trillion in total assets as of December 2024. Read more