BlackRock takes a piece of booming stablecoin market with redesigned fund

BlackRock has redesigned one of its flagship money market funds to meet new US stablecoin rules.

The $13.5 trillion asset manager said the revamped fund, called the BlackRock Select Treasury Based Liquidity Fund (BSTBL), will help manage reserves for companies behind US dollar-pegged stablecoins, offering them a safe place to park customer funds, according to CNBC.

“We want to be — and we believe we are — a preeminent reserve manager” for stablecoin issuers, Jon Steel, the global head of product and platform for BlackRock’s cash management business, told CNBC.

BlackRock noted that the offering aligns with the GENIUS Act, a law signed by President Donald Trump earlier this year that created the first US regulatory framework for stablecoins. The new rules outline how issuers must hold and invest their reserves, which BlackRock’s new fund aims to comply with.

BlackRock restructures fund for stablecoin reserves

According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission in August, BlackRock has renamed and restructured its BlackRock Liquid Federal Trust Fund money market fund, which previously invested 100% of its total assets in cash, US Treasury bills and notes.

The changes, approved by the company’s board, took effect on Tuesday. The fund will now invest entirely in short-term US Treasury securities and overnight repurchase agreements, making it an ultra-safe, highly liquid vehicle aimed at institutional investors, including stablecoin issuers, according to BlackRock.

The adjustments also include longer trading hours (until 5:00 pm Eastern Time) and later valuation times.

In a summary prospectus, BlackRock shared a breakdown of the fund’s fees and operating expenses, including a 0.21% management fee, 0.10% shareholder servicing fee and total expenses of 0.27% after waivers. It also showed a fee waiver agreement running through June 30, 2026.

BlackRock’s revamped fund marks its biggest push yet into the stablecoin market, which could make the asset manager a key player in managing reserves for dollar-pegged tokens.

The bet also comes amid the firm’s broader digital asset strategy, which already includes a Bitcoin ETF, an Ether product, and the BUIDL tokenized liquidity fund launched earlier this year.

BlackRock aims to attract more stablecoin issuers

BlackRock already manages reserves for Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, through a long-standing partnership that has grown rapidly as stablecoin adoption expands. The new BSTBL fund aims to bring that model to more issuers as demand for regulated, yield-bearing reserve options grows.

Citi analysts recently projected that stablecoin issuance could rise from $280 billion today to $4 trillion by 2030, underscoring the market’s explosive potential.

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/blackrock-stablecoin-market-new-reserve-fund