Circle Unveils Smart Contract Service for Blackrock BUIDL Holders to Convert to USDC

On Thursday, the financial technology firm and stablecoin provider Circle introduced smart contract capabilities aimed at enabling holders of the Blackrock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) to exchange their shares for USDC through Circle.

Circle Provides BUIDL Off-Ramp

This week, Circle announced it is providing a redemption pathway for BUIDL holders through USDC. BUIDL, short for the Blackrock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund, is a tokenized money market fund focusing on investments in U.S. Treasury bills, repurchase agreements, and cash. It seeks to uphold a consistent token value of $1. This fund allows accredited investors with at least $25 million in investable assets to accrue U.S. dollar yields by subscribing through the Securitize platform.

The smart contract functionality of USDC will permit investors holding BUIDL, priced at $1 per unit, to exchange their shares for USDC through Circle. “Tokenization of real-world assets is a rapidly emerging product category,” said Jeremy Allaire, the co-founder and CEO of Circle. “Tokenizing assets is but one important dimension of solving investor pain points.”

Allaire added:

USDC enables investors to move out of tokenized assets at speed, lowering costs and removing friction. We’re thrilled to provide this functionality to BUIDL investors and deliver the core benefits of blockchain transactions via USDC availability to investors.

Currently, the BUIDL fund holds a valuation of $288.06 million, ranking as the second highest-valued fund beneath Franklin Templeton’s BENJI fund. Known as the Franklin Onchain U.S. Government Money Fund (FOBXX), this product is a tokenized mutual fund that channels investments into U.S. Treasury bills, repurchase agreements, and cash, with the goal of keeping a stable net asset value of $1 per token. As of now, the BENJI fund’s market capitalization stands at $363.34 million.