BlackRock wants to run the money behind stablecoins. The world’s largest asset manager has launched two tokenised money market funds built to serve as reserves for stablecoin issuers, deepening its push into blockchain-based finance.
The funds are its latest step in tokenisation, the business of putting traditional assets such as Treasury bills onto a blockchain. It is a race Wall Street rivals including JPMorgan have already joined.
One fund, ticker BSTBL, is a tokenised share class of an existing BlackRock money market fund, issued on Ethereum. The other, BRSRV, is a new vehicle built specifically as a stablecoin reserve, with daily dividend reinvestment and access across multiple blockchains.
The timing follows the law. The US GENIUS Act, passed about a year ago, set rules for how stablecoins must be backed, and BlackRock is positioning its funds as the safe, yield-bearing assets issuers can hold against the tokens they mint.
‘We see lots of growth ahead in stablecoin and we want to be the reserve manager of choice,’ said BlackRock chief financial officer Martin Small, whose firm already manages tens of billions of dollars in stablecoin reserves.
