WisdomTree was one of the earlier asset managers to embrace tokenization, launching a solution in 2023. Today it announced that its 13 tokenized funds are now available on five blockchains, Ethereum, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Base and Optimism. The asset manager has $116 billion in (conventional) assets under management (AUM).
“With access to our comprehensive suite of tokenized funds and the ability to interact with them directly across these newly supported blockchains, our tokens are able to be held in third-party and self-custodial wallets, providing users with greater choice in how they access tokenized RWA,” said Maredith Hannon, Head of Business Development, Digital Assets at WisdomTree. Until recently, the funds were only available via the WisdomTree app.
Its tokenized funds have reached almost $130 million AUM, a big jump from around $15 million at the start of the year. Total tokenized money market funds (MMFs) across all asset managers are now approaching $5 billion, although that figure involves some double counting.
The increase in WisdomTree’s AUM is because of a relationship with tokenization startup Ondo Finance. Ondo holds over $100 million of one of WisdomTree’s money market funds as collateral for Ondo’s tokenized money market fund OUSG.
While it might not seem ideal, WisdomTree’s reliance on a single investor is not particularly unusual at this early stage of the tokenization sector. Ondo also invested $110 million in BlackRock’s BUIDL, $70 million in Franklin Templeton’s FOBXX and another $80 million in Fidelity’s new tokenized fund.
Even BlackRock’s BUIDL is dominated by a single investor. Its AUM has grown almost threefold in the last month, approaching $2 billion. Why? Because the new Ethena USDtb stablecoin invested almost $1.3 billion. Until January Hashnote, now owned by Circle, was the market leader with around 96% of its tokens held by another stablecoin protocol, Usual.
Tokenization is an opportunity for asset managers
For asset managers, these stablecoin protocols and the corporate treasuries of crypto protocols represent a new client opportunity. With the Trump administration being more friendly towards blockchain, there’s also the prospect of tokenized MMFs being used as collateral for margin positions.
Just this morning the major fund distribution firm Calastone announced a service enabling any of its asset management clients to tokenize funds without changing the way the fund is managed.
