BlackRock teams up with Uniswap… “Tokenised assets have moved into DeFi”

Uniswap, the world’s largest decentralised exchange (DEX), has linked BlackRock’s tokenised money market fund (MMF) to its trading network. The move is seen as further strengthening the connective tissue between traditional finance and decentralised finance (DeFi).

According to industry sources on the 15th, Uniswap Labs said it recently partnered with Securitize to enable BlackRock’s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund, “BUIDL,” to be traded on UniswapX. BlackRock is also reported to have made a strategic investment in the Uniswap ecosystem. The size of the investment was not disclosed.

BUIDL is a tokenised money market fund backed by assets such as US Treasuries. With the integration, eligible investors can swap dollar-denominated stablecoin USD Coin (USDC) and BUIDL around the clock. Unlike the traditional financial system, where fund redemptions and settlement can take several days, blockchain-based infrastructure enables real-time transactions.

Uniswap is a leading DEX that operates on an automated market maker (AMM) model. Instead of an intermediary matching orders as on a centralised exchange, smart contracts set prices and execute trades based on mathematical formulas. Users supply trading liquidity by depositing assets into liquidity pools and receive a portion of fees in return.

The partnership is significant in that an institution-only tokenised asset has been connected to DeFi infrastructure. However, the feature is available only to participants who have completed eligible-investor screening and whitelisting via Securitize.

Carlos Domingo, CEO of Securitize, called it “a case that combines the regulatory framework of traditional finance with the efficiency of DeFi.” Robert Mitchnick, BlackRock’s Head of Digital Assets, said it represents “progress that demonstrates interoperability between tokenised assets and DeFi.”

Market participants are watching closely as tokenised products from major asset managers connect with DeFi infrastructure, potentially paving the way for broader blockchain-based deployment of regulated institutional capital.