Wall Street Moves $8B in Tokenized Treasuries to Ethereum

On-chain totals indicate tokenized U.S. Treasury holdings on the Ethereum blockchain rose from about $4 billion in November 2025 to roughly $8 billion in May 2026. Major asset managers including BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, Fidelity and WisdomTree launched or expanded products during that period.

Tokenized Treasuries are digital tokens that represent ownership of U.S. government debt. The securities carry the same contractual terms as conventional Treasuries: they are loans to the U.S. government that pay interest over a set term. Ownership is recorded on a blockchain rather than in a traditional custodian ledger or paper certificate.

On a blockchain, tokenized Treasuries can settle within seconds at any time, including weekends and holidays. Traditional Treasury trades typically settle in one to two business days. Token holders need a compliant crypto wallet rather than a brokerage account or a U.S. bank account to hold the tokens.

Smart contracts enable automated interactions. They can be programmed to route interest payments to other contracts, accept tokenized Treasuries as collateral for borrowing stablecoins, or transfer holdings between wallets while keeping a public transaction record.

Market holdings are concentrated. BlackRock’s BUIDL fund, managed by Securitize, is the largest holder at about $2.63 billion. Ondo Finance’s USDY holds roughly $2.14 billion, and Franklin Templeton’s iBENJI holds about $2.1 billion. Other sizable products include Centrifuge’s JTRSY at $1.14 billion, WisdomTree’s WTGXX at $978 million, Superstate’s USTB at $850 million, and Ondo’s OUSG at $682 million.

Ethereum is the primary chain for these products because it supports programmable smart contracts and has a longer operational history and a larger audited code base than many alternatives. Bitcoin does not offer comparable smart-contract functionality. Other chains that support programmability, such as Solana, are in earlier stages of adoption and have shorter track records. Chain-level totals show roughly $8 billion on Ethereum, about $3.4 billion on BNB Chain, and under $1 billion each on Solana, Stellar and the XRP Ledger.

Several factors coincided with the market expansion. Treasury yields were relatively high, producing annual returns in a range commonly reported between about 5% and 10% for comparable maturities. Large institutions launched and expanded tokenized-Treasury products. The price of Ethereum’s native token rose from about $1,748 in February 2026 to roughly $2,464 in May 2026.

Future growth will depend on interest-rate trends and regulatory outcomes. A significant cut in U.S. policy rates could affect demand for Treasuries. U.S. law has not yet established a comprehensive statutory framework specific to tokenized securities, and regulators and market participants continue to work on compliance and operational standards.