BlackRock leads $47M funding round for RWA tokenization firm Securitize.

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BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, has led a $47 million investment round in Securities, a firm focused on virtualization of real-world assets (RWA). The strategic capital infusion announced on May 1 is a major milestone in the development of digital asset securities.

Securing plans to allocate the funds to product development, international expansion and partnerships across the financial industry. The investment round also saw participation from prominent companies and investors such as Aptos Labs, Circle, Paxos, Hamilton Lane, ParaFi Capital and Tradeweb Markets.

“In our view, the potential of blockchain technology to transform the future of finance in general – and tokenization in particular – is promising,” said Carlos Domingo, founder of Securitis.

As part of the investment, BlackRock's global head of strategic ecosystem partnerships, Joseph Chalom, will join Securities' board of directors. Chalom emphasized his belief in the potential of tokenization to bring about significant changes in the infrastructure of capital markets, stating that the investment in securities is another step in the development of the company's digital assets strategy.

In March, BlackRock partnered with Securities to launch the first tokenized fund on Ethereum, the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL). The fund offers a stable price of $1 (per token) and distributes dividends directly to investors' wallets as new tokens every month.

Investing primarily in cash (on demand), US Treasury bills, and repurchase agreements, BUIDL aims to provide a product by securing liquidity on the blockchain.

As of May 1, BUIDL has become the world's largest blockchain-certified treasury fund, surpassing Franklin Templeton's Franklin OnChain US Treasury Fund by market capitalization. Since its launch six weeks ago, BUIDL's market capitalization rose to $375 million from $274 million in April, a 36.5 percent increase.

This growth is consistent with a broader trend toward higher yielding debt-based investments. In the year As of April 26, the total value locked up in real-world assets held by the token reached $8 billion, a nearly 60% increase since February. Prospective investors should note that these figures exclude fiat-backed stablecoins and include various assets (commodities, securities and real estate tokenization protocols).

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