Ethena, Securitize Enable 24/7 Atomic Swaps Between USDtb and BlackRock’s BUIDL, Driving Institutional Tokenized Treasury Adoption

Ethena Labs and Securitize have achieved 24/7 atomic swaps between Ethena’s stablecoin USDtb and BlackRock’s tokenized U.S. Treasury fund, BUIDL. This integration builds on prior institutional adoption, where major exchanges like Deribit and Crypto.com, as well as Binance, OKX, and Frax Finance, began accepting BUIDL as trading collateral. BUIDL now makes up 90% of USDtb’s reserves, totaling $2.88 billion in locked value, positioning USDtb as a highly liquid, real-world asset-backed stablecoin. The initiative significantly enhances on-chain liquidity and offers a frictionless, permissionless asset exchange for both institutional and on-chain users, potentially reducing margin requirements and counterparty risk. This further blurs traditional finance and DeFi boundaries. However, with BlackRock dominating about 40% of the tokenized Treasury market and only a handful of firms controlling the majority of tokenized Treasuries, concerns about centralization and systemic risk persist. Overall, the move signals rapid growth in tokenized real-world assets, driving deeper DeFi integration and potential market efficiency improvements.
Bullish
The introduction of 24/7 atomic swaps between USDtb and BlackRock’s BUIDL fund significantly enhances on-chain liquidity and utility for stablecoins in the DeFi ecosystem. The large proportion of BUIDL in USDtb’s reserves, growing integrations with major exchanges as collateral, and seamless, permissionless asset conversion all point to increased adoption and efficiency. By backing stablecoins with low-volatility, yield-bearing tokenized Treasuries, institutional confidence and trading flexibility may rise, driving greater activity and market depth. While concentration risks and increased centralization warrant attention, immediate sentiment remains bullish due to expanded functionality, regulatory friendliness, and the strong participation of major players like BlackRock, Ethena, and Securitize. Historically, such integrations have led to price appreciation and growth in on-chain volumes for the related assets.