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BlackRock Expands Aladdin Support for Ethena Stablecoins

Through Aladdin, institutional investors get broader access to Ethena products, while BlackRock's BUIDL fund and tokenized Treasurys gain extra liquidity.

By Mike Hesp
• 2 min read
BlackRock Expands Aladdin Support for Ethena Stablecoins

Key Takeaways

  • BlackRock and Ethena Labs are deepening their partnership, giving institutional investors more access to Ethena products through Aladdin.
  • Through Securitize, Ethena is backing a $100 million liquidity facility for BlackRock's BUIDL fund.
  • The deal makes it easier to move between tokenized treasury funds and stablecoins outside normal market hours.

BlackRock and Ethena Labs are taking their partnership a step further. Institutional investors will now have broader access to Ethena products through Aladdin, while liquidity around BUIDL gets a boost. The arrangement also shows how tokenized real-world assets are becoming part of existing institutional workflows more often, rather than being treated as standalone crypto products.

More Liquidity for BUIDL

The companies said Ethena is helping support a $100 million (€87.7 million) liquidity facility through Securitize, the tokenization platform and regulated transfer agent for BlackRock's USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund, better known as BUIDL. The setup allows qualified BUIDL customers to exchange tokens for USDC, USDtb, and other supported stablecoins, and then move those stablecoins back into BUIDL outside normal market hours.

BlackRock says that matters especially for tokenized treasury funds, since it makes it easier to move between onchain products without unnecessary friction. Robert Mitchnick, BlackRock's global head of digital assets, said interoperability is a key part of what makes tokenized Treasury funds different.

Why This Matters for Europe

For European crypto readers, the deal is another sign that major asset managers are using blockchain for more than just pilots and experiments. They are also applying it to the plumbing behind liquidity and settlement. That becomes more relevant as institutional players look for ways to connect traditional systems with onchain financial products without abandoning their existing risk controls.

Ethena Is Betting on Synthetic Dollars

The broader expansion fits Ethena's push to build digital dollar infrastructure. The company describes USDe as a synthetic dollar, unlike traditional stablecoins such as USDC and USDT, which are mostly backed by fiat reserves. In practice, Ethena uses a delta-neutral strategy with long positions in staked Ethereum and short positions in ETH perpetual futures.

BlackRock and Ethena had already partnered on USDtb, Ethena's stablecoin issued by Anchorage Digital Bank and mostly backed by BUIDL. BUIDL, which launched on Ethereum in 2024, is one of the largest tokenized U.S. Treasury funds. Other asset managers are also betting on tokenized funds for stablecoin reserves. According to RWA.xyz, tokenized Treasurys now account for nearly half of the total tokenized RWA market, with about $15 billion (€13.2 billion) onchain.

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