Copper to Offer Custody Services for Tokenized Money Market Funds Such as BlackRock’s BUIDL

Cryptocurrency firm Copper said it is now able to offer clients secure custody and trading of tokenized money market funds such as Blackrock’s BUIDL, the company said in a press release Wednesday.

Copper clients can also use tokenized money market funds as collateral in derivatives trades, after the crypto custodian received regulatory approvals from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) in Abu Dhabi, the London-based company said.

The company has signed new partnerships with key participants involved in tokenization, including Securitize, Franklin Templeton, Ondo and Hashnote. Securitize is the transfer agent and tokenization platform for Blackrock’s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund, issued on the Ethereum blockchain and represented by the blockchain-based BUIDL token.

Tokenized Treasuries are digital representations of U.S. government bonds and are at the forefront of the representation of real-world assets on blockchains, allowing them to be traded as tokens on networks such as Ethereum, Stellar, Solana and Mantle. Digital asset firms and TradFi heavyweights have been racing to put financial instruments such as government bonds, private credit and money market funds on blockchain rails, to achieve operational efficiencies and faster settlements.

“If the Fed does end up keeping rates higher for longer, these tokenized money market funds could enhance returns for derivative market participants, who would be earning income from the collateral they post to counterparties,” Amar Kuchinad, Copper’s global CEO, said in emailed comments.

The tokenized Treasury market has almost tripled in size this year, growing from $780 million in January to around $2.3 billion, according to data from rwa.xyz.

Kuchinad, a former Securities and Exchange (SEC) adviser, replaced Dmitry Tokarev as global CEO last month.

Read more: Crypto Custody Firm Copper’s CEO Dmitry Tokarev Plans to Step Down