Tokenized Treasury Market Growth: What the Numbers Actually Show

Tokenized Treasury and government money market products — funds that hold short-term US Treasury securities or repo and issue on-chain tokens representing shares — have grown from close to zero in 2022 to a category trackers such as rwa.xyz and DeFiLlama have shown in the billions of dollars by the mid-2020s (figures are snapshots and change often — check the tracker for the current as-of date). The growth is led by a small number of large issuers, most visibly BlackRock's BUIDL fund and Franklin Templeton's BENJI fund, alongside several other asset managers. The number reflects institutional demand for on-chain cash management more than retail adoption, and it says nothing about the yield, risk, or access terms of any single product.

What Counts as a Tokenized Treasury Product

A tokenized Treasury product is typically a registered fund or fund-like vehicle that holds short-term US government debt or repurchase agreements, with fund shares represented as tokens on a public or permissioned blockchain instead of, or alongside, traditional book-entry records. The underlying holdings are the same kind of low-duration government securities that back conventional money market funds; what changes is how ownership is recorded, transferred, and reported.

The best-known examples are:

• BlackRock's BUIDL (the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund), issued on-chain through Securitize since March 2024, investing in cash, US Treasury bills, and repurchase agreements.
• Franklin Templeton's BENJI token, representing shares of the Franklin OnChain US Government Money Fund, one of the earlier tokenized money market products, tracked on multiple public blockchains.
• A growing list of additional issuers and funds, including offerings from other established asset managers and crypto-native platforms, that have entered the category since 2023.

What the Growth Numbers Actually Measure

Dashboards such as rwa.xyz and DeFiLlama track this category by summing the on-chain value of outstanding tokens across these funds. The category has expanded from a few hundred million dollars in combined value in 2023 to a figure trackers have shown in the billions of dollars in 2025, reflecting both new fund launches and growth in existing funds like BUIDL and BENJI. Growth has not been a straight line — the category has seen periods of rapid inflows tied to specific institutional allocations, and outstanding value can also fall when large holders redeem.

The concentration point matters. A meaningful share of tokenized Treasury value sits with a small number of large holders, including crypto-native institutions using these tokens for treasury management or as collateral. A rising category total does not mean the products are broadly available to retail investors, and several of the largest funds have eligibility requirements that exclude general retail access.

Why This Category Has Grown Faster Than Other RWA Categories

Tokenized Treasuries and money market funds have been the fastest-growing segment of the broader RWA market for a specific reason: the underlying asset, short-term government debt, is simple to value, has minimal credit risk relative to other private credit or equity structures, and already has a deep, liquid off-chain market to reference for pricing. That combination makes it easier for large, regulated asset managers to bring the product on-chain without solving the harder valuation and liquidity problems that private credit or pre-IPO tokenization face.

Demand has come largely from crypto-native institutions and trading firms wanting a yield-bearing, dollar-denominated instrument that settles on-chain, as an alternative or complement to holding stablecoins, which typically do not pass yield directly to holders. That is a different demand driver than general investor appetite for RWA products, and it is worth keeping the two separate when reading growth headlines. For that comparison, see stablecoins versus tokenized money market funds and why institutions are tokenizing funds and treasuries.

Reading the Numbers Without Overextrapolating

A rising tokenized Treasury total says the category is attracting more institutional capital. It does not say that yields are fixed or guaranteed — fund yields track prevailing short-term interest rates and move when rates move, the same as any traditional Treasury or money market fund. It also does not say that every fund in the category has the same redemption terms, minimums, or eligibility rules; those vary by issuer and should be checked in each fund's own documents. For a closer look at how individual tokenized Treasury products differ beyond the yield, see tokenized treasury products compared and government bond RWA and how tokenized treasuries work.

BiFu's RWA page lists tokenized Treasury and money market products alongside their fund documents and eligibility requirements, which is where growth statistics like these belong — as background, not as a substitute for reading the fund's own terms.

Risk note: Tokenized Treasury and money market products still carry interest rate risk, and yields move with short-term rates rather than staying fixed. They are not deposit accounts and are not principal-protected. Review each fund's prospectus or offering documents, including eligibility and redemption terms, before participating.

FAQ

How much has the tokenized Treasury market grown?

Trackers such as rwa.xyz and DeFiLlama have shown the category growing from a few hundred million dollars in combined value in 2023 to a total in the billions of dollars by 2025, driven largely by funds such as BlackRock's BUIDL and Franklin Templeton's BENJI. Treat any specific figure as a snapshot, since the total changes as funds issue new shares or process redemptions.

What is BUIDL and how is it different from a regular money market fund?

BUIDL is BlackRock's USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund, which holds cash, Treasury bills, and repurchase agreements like a conventional government money market fund, but represents fund shares as tokens issued on-chain through Securitize. The underlying holdings and investment strategy are similar to traditional money market products; the difference is in how ownership is recorded and transferred.

Can retail investors buy tokenized Treasury tokens like BUIDL or BENJI?

Access varies by fund and depends on each issuer's own eligibility rules, and several of the largest tokenized Treasury funds have been structured for qualified or institutional investors rather than general retail access. Check the specific fund's offering documents for its investor eligibility requirements before assuming it is available to you.

Does tokenized Treasury growth mean yields are higher than a normal money market fund?

No. Tokenized Treasury funds hold the same type of short-term government securities as traditional money market funds, so their yields track the same prevailing short-term interest rates and are not inherently higher because the shares are tokenized. Any yield difference typically comes from fee structure, not from tokenization itself.

Related Reading

• New to this? Start with how tokenized treasuries work.
• See the broader picture in why institutions are tokenizing funds and treasuries.