A money market fund buys short-term, highly rated debt — primarily US Treasury bills — and pays the resulting interest to its shareholders, minus a small management fee. That structure has existed since the 1970s. What is new is putting the shares on a blockchain, so that the claim on a share accrues interest by the second and transfers in seconds, globally, without a broker.
That is the core of a tokenized money market fund: a regulated fund whose shares live on-chain. The token is the share. Holding the token earns the fund's daily yield, automatically.
The category reached $14.67 billion in distributed value across 82 products as of June 2026, according to rwa.xyz data tracking on-chain treasury assets. The three names that account for most of the conversation — BlackRock's BUIDL, Circle's USYC, and Franklin Templeton's BENJI — are structurally distinct products aimed at different audiences.
Why tokenize a money market fund at all?
Traditional money market fund shares settle on T+1 or T+2 — the trade settles the next or second business day. They are accessible only through a brokerage account, during market hours, through an intermediary that reports to a single jurisdiction. Redemptions may take days.
A tokenized share settles on-chain in seconds. It can be moved to a counterparty, posted as collateral in a DeFi protocol, or converted to a payment stablecoin within a single transaction. The fund's legal structure and the yield it generates are unchanged; what changes is the token's mobility.
For institutional treasury operations, this matters in practice. A DAO or corporate treasury holding idle cash can earn the T-bill rate while the cash remains instantly deployable. The moment a payment is needed, the token converts — no T+1 wait.
The three leading products
BUIDL — BlackRock
BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) is the best-known product in the category and the institutional standard. It invests in short-term US Treasury bills, cash, and repurchase agreements. BNY Mellon acts as custodian; Securitize manages transfer and access.
Key facts (as of June 2026):
- AUM: approximately $2.39 billion (rwa.xyz)
- Yield: ~3.40% APY (7-day, rwa.xyz)
- Yield mechanism: Daily rebasing — token balance increases
- Primary chains: Ethereum (primary), expanding multi-chain
- Access: Accredited investors; historically required $5 million minimum through Securitize
- Legal form: US-registered fund; shares are securities under US law
BUIDL is the product that institutional DeFi protocols — Ondo's OUSG, for instance — use as a reserve asset. It is not a retail product. Its institutional footprint means it is often held indirectly through other structured products rather than directly.
USYC — Circle / Hashnote
USYC is the on-chain share class of the Hashnote Short Duration Yield Fund, which holds primarily reverse repurchase agreements against US Treasuries — overnight and short-term secured lending to institutions, with Treasuries as collateral. Circle acquired Hashnote in early 2025 and positioned USYC as its designated yield-bearing asset.
Key facts (as of June 2026):
- AUM: approximately $2.83 billion (rwa.xyz) — the largest single tokenized Treasury product
- Yield: ~3.18% APY (7-day, rwa.xyz)
- Yield mechanism: Price accrual — token price rises daily
- Access: Institutional and qualified investors; KYC through Circle
- Primary use: Yield-bearing collateral inside stablecoin and DeFi products
USYC's large AUM reflects B2B adoption more than direct investor demand. Other issuers and protocols hold USYC as a reserve asset or yield-generating collateral layer. Individual investors may hold it indirectly through structured products that use USYC as a backing component.
BENJI — Franklin Templeton
Franklin Templeton's BENJI (Franklin OnChain US Government Money Fund) was the first US-registered tokenized money market fund, launched on the Stellar blockchain in 2021. It has since expanded to eight blockchains: Stellar, Polygon, Arbitrum, Aptos, Avalanche, Base, Solana, and Ethereum.
Key facts (as of June 2026):
- AUM: ~$836.9 million for BENJI; ~$1.59 billion for iBENJI (a wrapped institutional version) (rwa.xyz)
- Yield: ~3.48% APY (7-day, rwa.xyz, BENJI)
- Legal form: US-registered SEC-reporting money market fund
- Investor growth: More than 140% increase in BENJI investors from April 2024 to March 2026
- Access: Expanded via MoonPay partnership (June 2026) to lower the minimum entry for individual investors
BENJI is the most retail-accessible of the three. Its multi-chain presence and the MoonPay distribution deal in 2026 reduced friction for smaller investors who cannot meet the institutional minimums of BUIDL. It is also the only product among the three structured as an SEC-reporting fund from inception.
USDY — Ondo Finance
USDY is not a fund share but a note backed by short-term US Treasury bills and bank demand deposits. It deserves mention alongside the fund products because it is the fourth-largest tokenized Treasury product by AUM ($2.14 billion, rwa.xyz) and pays the highest 7-day yield of the top four (3.55%, rwa.xyz). Its primary access restriction is geographic: issuance is restricted to non-US persons at the primary level, though secondary market access varies.
Market at a glance (June 2026, rwa.xyz)
| Product | Issuer | AUM | 7-day APY | Chains |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| USYC | Circle / Hashnote | $2.83B | 3.18% | Ethereum + |
| BUIDL | BlackRock | $2.39B | 3.40% | Ethereum (primary) |
| USDY | Ondo Finance | $2.14B | 3.55% | ETH, SOL, Aptos + |
| iBENJI | Franklin Templeton | $1.59B | — | Multiple |
| BENJI | Franklin Templeton | $836.9M | 3.48% | 8 chains |
Total tokenized Treasury market: $14.67 billion across 82 products, 65,573 holders.
What this means in practice — and for whom
For institutional treasury teams: BUIDL and USYC are the most liquid and recognized products for deploying idle cash into on-chain T-bill returns while maintaining instant-redemption optionality. The $5M minimum for BUIDL is a real constraint; USYC has more flexible onboarding for qualified buyers.
For DAOs and protocol treasuries: Both BUIDL and USYC are increasingly used as reserve assets inside DeFi protocols — as backing for synthetic stablecoins, as collateral in lending markets, or as reserve assets for payment issuers. The composability advantage of on-chain shares makes this more tractable than holding T-bills through a brokerage.
For individual investors outside the US: USDY offers the most accessible path at the primary-market level, subject to the 40–50 day seasoning period on newly issued tokens. BENJI, via MoonPay, is expanding retail access. Yields are close across products; access is the differentiating variable.
For US retail investors: Direct access to these products at primary issuance is effectively closed. The GENIUS Act, as passed in the US Senate in 2025, explicitly excludes yield-bearing tokens from the "payment stablecoin" category available to retail users. Indirect access through structured DeFi products exists, but carries additional layers of smart-contract risk.
The regulatory boundary
Tokenized money market fund shares are securities under US law. BUIDL is regulated as a security. BENJI is registered with the SEC. This means:
- US retail investors face restrictions on primary issuance
- Transfer restrictions apply in many cases (hence USDY's seasoning period)
- Holders have investor protections under securities law — but also face the compliance overhead that implies
The GENIUS Act draws a hard line between payment stablecoins (stable value, no yield, permissioned issuers) and yield-bearing instruments (like tokenized fund shares). The regulatory goal was to prevent stablecoin issuers from operating unregulated money market funds at scale. The practical effect is that the products with the best yields are the hardest to access for most retail users in the US.
For a full side-by-side comparison of BUIDL, USYC, USDY, and BENJI including fee structures, chain support, and redemption mechanics, see Tokenized treasuries compared. For the underlying risk profile of earning yield from these instruments, see The real risks of earning yield on stablecoins.