BlackRock Inc. is bringing its roughly $2.5 billion money market fund to cryptocurrency exchange operator OKX, with Standard Chartered Plc holding the underlying assets — the latest sign that Wall Street infrastructure and digital-asset markets are converging.
Under the arrangement, the tokens of the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (ticker BUIDL) sit in regulated custody at Standard Chartered while showing up as available collateral on OKX, meaning traders can post it as margin while it keeps earning interest instead of sitting idle.
The setup solves a basic inefficiency: cash posted as collateral on crypto exchanges has traditionally earned virtually nothing. BlackRock’s fund, which invests in Treasuries and repurchase agreements and is designed to hold a stable $1 value, turns what would otherwise be idle cash into a productive asset, a structure that is starting to grow in crypto markets.
For now, access is limited to investors in the Middle East.
“This product was designed to minimize risk rather than add the layers of risk,” said Rifad Mahasneh, CEO of OKX Middle East and North Africa and Commonwealth of Independent States. “It becomes more efficient collateral and productive collateral.”
The involvement of BlackRock — the world’s largest asset manager — alongside a global bank and a digital-asset exchange underscores how the boundary between conventional finance and crypto is steadily eroding. OKX — backed by Intercontinental Exchange, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange — is expanding the utility of real-world assets, a space that has grown to around $30 billion, up some 400% since the start of last year, according to RWA.xyz.
The announcement comes after Standard Chartered and OKX in April 2025 launched a similar collateral mirroring program with Franklin Templeton.
Tokenization has become a growing trend on Wall Street as money managers seek to tap crypto-native capital. Essentially, it’s the process of creating digital representations of real-world assets — such as stocks, bonds and private credit — on a blockchain, often with the goal of faster, more automated settlement behind the scenes. But in April, the International Monetary Fund warned that moving trading infrastructure onto blockchain-based systems could accelerate financial crises beyond regulators’ ability to respond.
Through this joint framework, BUIDL can now be used as collateral on a crypto exchange in multiple ways for the first time either off-exchange — where assets are held in custody at Standard Chartered for certain OKX clients — or directly on-exchange as yield-bearing collateral for margin trading. The dual approach reflects a broader shift toward flexibility in how institutional investors manage custody and capital efficiency.
“Some of our clients prefer to keep custody in a custodian such as Standard Chartered. Some of our clients prefer to keep custody within OKX. For us, it is an agnostic question,” Mahasneh said. “The novel idea is that you can still generate yield on that custody in both cases.”
Launched in 2024, BUIDL has grown into one of the largest funds in its category. It is tokenized by Securitize and available to qualified investors. BlackRock’s push into tokenization is driven by CEO Larry Fink, who has repeatedly said that every financial asset will eventually be tokenized — a view he reiterated in his latest annual letter to investors.
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