BlackRock, the largest asset manager globally, has submitted United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Form D for the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund, signaling the launch of its inaugural tokenized asset fund.
The filing reveals that BlackRock established the fund in 2023 but has not yet introduced it. Form D is employed to secure various exemptions, and BlackRock is seeking an exemption under the Investment Company Act Section 3(c), which exempts the company from certain SEC regulations. The fund was established under the jurisdiction of the British Virgin Islands.
Securitize, a US digital assets securities firm, will offer the fund, requiring a minimum investment of $100,000, and will also handle the token sale. The form discloses $525,000 in sales commissions and labels the fund’s size as “indefinite.” It was signed on March 14.
To tokenize the fund, it will be implemented on the Ethereum blockchain using an ERC-20 token named BUIDL. Currently, there is only one holder of the BUIDL token, and it has a $0 on-chain market cap, according to Etherscan. The fund received a $100 million transfer on March 4.
BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund was one of the first to receive SEC approval in January. CEO Larry Fink, who generally holds a bullish stance on BTC with some reservations, commented to Bloomberg after the ETF approval: “Every investor, you and I, will have our own number, our own identification. We could rid ourselves of all issues around illicit activities about bonds and stocks and digital by having a tokenization.” Fink further praised customization strategies through tokenization and instantaneous settlement.
Securitize is registered as a stock transfer agent and alternative trading system with the SEC. It has tokenized assets for asset manager KKR and Spanish real estate investment trust Mancipi, as well as forming a partnership with SBI Digital Markets in Singapore and acquiring cryptocurrency fund manager Onramp Invest, which managed over $40 billion in assets.