How tokenized US Treasuries are replacing DeFi’s foundation
Tokenized US Treasuries are rapidly growing, replacing purely crypto-native assets as the foundational collateral in decentralized finance.Summary
Decentralized finance (DeFi) is undergoing a fundamental shift as tokenized US Treasuries and money-market funds, now approaching $19 billion in total Real-World Assets (RWAs), replace the previous reliance on crypto-native assets like staked Ether or wrapped Bitcoin as the monetary base. This growth, fueled by high front-end yields and structural advantages, sees major players like BlackRock (BUIDL) and Franklin Templeton (BENJI) integrating traditional finance custody with blockchain settlement, often requiring KYC compliance.
Issuers are adopting different models: some, like BUIDL, function as tokenized institutional funds with traditional custody, while others, like BENJI, tokenize the shareholder registry itself on-chain. Despite limitations on full composability due to KYC requirements and redemption minimums, these tokens are increasingly used as collateral for institutional derivatives and within DeFi protocols like MakerDAO and Frax. Tokenized Treasuries are effectively becoming DeFi's repo market, a base layer of dollar-denominated collateral against which other activities clear.
The convergence is driven by both cyclical factors (attractive yields) and structural shifts (institutional adoption and 24/7 settlement capabilities). While regulation remains a factor, the plumbing connecting Wall Street custody to Ethereum and Solana rails is operational, suggesting DeFi protocols are rapidly rewiring their infrastructure around this TradFi collateral.
(Source：CryptoSlate)