Because putting trusted assets on trusted rails is the next logical step.
We’re talking about a $16 trillion market that still depends on aging infrastructure, manual clearing, siloed systems, and settlement delays.
Tokenization Doesn’t Change the Asset; It Changes the Process
A Treasury bond is still a Treasury bond. What changes is how it’s issued, settled, and managed.
Instead of manual clearing, fragmented databases, and delayed settlements, tokenization provides a single digital wrapper that’s programmable, transparent, and globally accessible.
On-Chain Representation Unlocks Key Advantages
On-chain representation turns the bond into a programmable financial object, enabling system-level benefits:
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Settlement logic moves on-chain – T+2 clearing becomes T+0, reducing counterparty and settlement risk.
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Smart contracts encode lifecycle actions – interest payments, redemptions, and compliance triggers execute automatically without human intervention.
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Fractionalization is native – bonds can be split into smaller units without separate securitization processes.
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Ledger is unified – instead of reconciling across 4–5 entities, all transactions live on a shared, timestamped ledger.
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Custody becomes abstracted – ownership is cryptographically secured, and transferability is built into the token.
What This Means in Practice
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Automate actions like interest payments or redemptions
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Offer assets in smaller, more accessible units.
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Settle transactions in minutes, not days.
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Keep an immutable audit trail within the asset itself
Not a Replacement, An Upgrade to Financial Plumbing
This isn’t about replacing traditional finance. It’s about making the financial infrastructure work better, especially at scale.
BlackRock isn’t experimenting. They’re laying the groundwork for how $16 trillion in real-world assets will move in the future.
Feels niche today, but this is how capital markets get upgraded.