BlackRock adds Goldman Sachs and 4 new partners to the ETF

BlackRock's IBIT Bitcoin spot ETF also adds ABN AMRO Clearing, UBS Securities, Citadel Securities, and Citigroup to the list of new partners.
According to Bloomberg senior analyst Eric Balchunas, the world's largest asset management group BlackRock has updated the list of Authorized Providers (AP) for its IBIT Bitcoin spot ETF.

Documents filed with the US Securities Commission (SEC) by BlackRock reveal five new AP names, including ABN AMRO Clearing USA LLC, Citadel Securities LLC, Citigroup Global Markets, Inc., Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC and UBS Securities LLC.

The document, when approved, will increase BlackRock's total number of authorized members from four to nine, with Jane Street Capital LLC, JP Morgan Securities LLC, Macquarie Capital (USA) Inc., and Virtu Americas LLC already named. in the previous list.

JUST IN: BlackRock updated its bitcoin ETF prospectus w/ many new Authorized Participants incl first-timers Citadel, Goldman Sachs, UBS, Citigroup. Takeaway: big time firms now want piece of action and/or are now OK being publicly associated w this. H/t @akibablade @CryptoSlate… pic.twitter.com/z5Ntb43VhO— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) April 5, 2024

Authorized Providers (APs) play a key role in the creation and redemption of ETF shares, facilitating this process by transferring funds between Trust Managers through one or more account.
The announcement to expand the AP list is expected to improve IBIT's liquidity and accessibility to investors. The document also states that additional APs may be added at any time, at the discretion of the Sponsor.

In addition, Mr. Eric Balchunas said that this is the first time the world's top 5 financial management organizations "appear" on the AP list of an ETF, showing the growing widespread acceptance of Bitcoin. and growing demand for managed investment instruments that provide exposure to digital assets.

These additions come in the context that both IBIT and Fidelity's FBTC fund recorded a 3-fold increase in Bitcoin ETF trading volume in March 2024.

Data from Farside Investors shows that BlackRock's IBIT fund attracted $144 million in inflows on April 4, 2024, followed by FBTC's $106 million. Of the 11 ETFs, these are the only two to consistently show net inflows into their Bitcoin ETF products for 49 consecutive days, a feat achieved by only 30 other ETFs in history.

Previously, BlackRock's real world asset fund with BUILD token attracted 245 million USD in deposits after just 1 week of launch, jumping to 2nd place in the ranking of the largest tokenized T-bill funds today. .

"BUILD" with BlackRock
As reported on March 20, BlackRock established an RWA investment fund with Securitize called “USD Digital Liquidity Fund”. At the same time, a token with the code BUILD was created on March 5 on the Ethereum blockchain, rumored to be related to the above investment fund.

To date, this news has been confirmed. BUILD represents the number of U.S. Treasury bills and repo agreements that BlackRock holds in the new fund. According to Etherscan, BUILD currently holds assets worth $245 million.

Thus, BlackRock is holding the second largest RWA fund in terms of T-bill reserves. According to data from rwa.xyz, at the top is Franklin Templeton's US Treasury Fund (FOBXX), with deposits of 360 million USD.

Notably, BUILD achieved this position after only 1 week of launch, showing the level of interest in the Real World Asset (RWA) segment from institutional investors.

With an impressive opening, many analysts have high expectations for BUILD in the near future. Tom Wan, analyst at 21Shares fund, predicts:

“With the growth of BUIDL, we may soon see the tokenized Treasury Bill market reach a value of $1 billion.”
T-bill is the top choice for asset tokenization, as the instrument is inherently low-risk. Tokenization of T-bill makes it possible for investors to deposit cash on-chain and earn stable profits without having to leave the blockchain ecosystem.

According to CoinDesk, the tokenized T-bill market has grown like "mushrooms growing after rain" over the past year, increasing ninefold from $100 million in early 2023.

Ondo Finance takes advantage of BUILD

Under the leadership of BlackRock, other tokens in the RWA segment also recorded outstanding growth in recent days. Among them, Ondo Finance has the most advantage.

Immediately after BUILD's launch, Ondo Finance quickly deposited 95 million USD into BUILD to provide fast settlement for its T-bill-pegged token, OUSG.

OUSG is a product that helps users earn profits from short-term bond funds of the US government. In essence, OUSG is a tokenized version of the US government short-term bond ETF. Previously, the majority of OUSG's portfolio was BlackRock's iShares ETF.

Because it is an investment product in a traditional market, it is only traded during normal business hours, in contrast to the 24/7 nature of crypto. Therefore, OUSG registration and swap operations have a settlement time of up to T+2. But with the guarantee of BUILD fund, Ondo has pushed the settlement time to instant.

Ondo Finance CEO Nathan Allman shared:

“So far, many investors are still hesitant to use OUSG because of the T+2 conversion time, while the crypto market fluctuates 24/7/365, as well as the need to move capital more frequently because of Many unforeseen events arise.

OUSG will become much more useful once it has instant settlement, moving closer to its goal of becoming a collateral and store of value in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.”
ONDO price is currently trading around 0.91 USD, up 28% in the past 7 days. In the 30-day frame, ONDO has more than doubled.
BlackRock's BUILD is for institutional investors only, with a minimum deposit of $5 million. But it allows RWA projects like Ondo to use BUILD as collateral to serve their own individual customers.