Nikolas Sargeant
BlackRock is launching a revamped money market fund designed to comply with the GENIUS Act as the asset manager positions itself to serve stablecoin issuers required to hold high-quality, liquid reserves under the new federal framework. The BlackRock Select Treasury Based Liquidity Fund (BSTBL) has been retooled with a 5 p.m. ET trading deadline, according to CNBC, and a Treasury-heavy mandate to streamline reserve management for token issuers operating under federal guidelines.
The move capitalizes on the GENIUS Act, the nation's first federal stablecoin law signed by President Donald Trump in July, which directs regulators to develop rules for permitted payment stablecoin issuers including standards for reserve assets such as short-term Treasury bills, anti-money laundering requirements, and mandatory reporting. The fund's rebrand coincides with the emergence of regulated, GENIUS-aligned stablecoins, including Anchorage Digital Bank's partnership with Ethena Labs to launch USDtb, the first U.S. GENIUS-compliant stablecoin.
BlackRock's initiative reflects broader institutional adoption in the tokenization space. The development arrives in a year that has seen banks and asset managers pilot tokenized money-market exposures for collateral and around-the-clock liquidity, with many on Wall Street now viewing it as a durable modernization of market infrastructure. The firm already manages reserves for Circle, the USDC issuer, and has launched both Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs alongside tokenized fund products.
TD Cowen analysts predict that the onchain capital base could exceed $100 trillion within five years as tokenization spreads across asset classes, providing context for why cash-management products aimed at stablecoin issuers are receiving institutional attention. Industry forecasts suggest stablecoin issuance could surge from approximately $300 billion today to over $2 trillion by 2028, positioning BlackRock's BSTBL as a cornerstone for next-generation institutional cash management.
The GENIUS-compliant fund launch builds on BlackRock's impressive digital asset track record. The firm's spot Bitcoin ETF became the fastest ETF to reach $70 billion in assets, achieving this milestone in just 341 days—five times faster than GLD, the gold-based ETF that took 1,691 days to reach the same threshold. BlackRock's existing tokenized Treasury product has grown to nearly $2.2 billion and become the world's largest tokenized Treasury fund, while CEO Larry Fink has stated in his 2025 annual letter that "every financial asset can be tokenized." The company's digital assets under management reached $79.6 billion as of the second quarter of 2025, representing just 1% of its $12.5 trillion total but showing rapid growth momentum across multiple blockchain networks including its BUIDL fund launch on Solana.
