Investment giant VanEck has taken a bold step into blockchain-based finance with the launch of a tokenized real-world asset (RWA) fund offering exposure to U.S. Treasury bills. Developed in partnership with Securitize, a leading tokenization platform, the new fund — dubbed VBILL — marks VanEck’s formal entry into the growing world of tokenized traditional assets.
VBILL will be accessible on four major blockchains: Avalanche, BNB Chain, Ethereum, and Solana. However, access to the fund comes with varying entry points. Minimum investment thresholds are set at $100,000 for subscriptions via Avalanche, BNB Chain, and Solana, while Ethereum-based investments start at $1 million, according to VanEck’s official statement.
This move places VanEck among a fast-growing cohort of traditional financial firms racing to capitalize on blockchain’s potential in asset management. Competitors such as BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, and Apollo Global Management — the latter managing $751 billion in assets — have also introduced tokenized fund offerings, signaling a broader industry shift.
Securitize, VanEck’s partner in the initiative, brings robust tokenization credentials to the table, having already tokenized over $3.9 billion worth of assets. The firm recently secured $47 million in strategic funding led by BlackRock, underscoring institutional confidence in the tokenization space.
U.S. Treasury securities, now the second-largest category in tokenized funds behind private credit, boast a market capitalization of $6.9 billion, data from RWA.xyz shows. Advocates argue that tokenization brings numerous advantages over traditional finance, including improved liquidity for previously illiquid assets and faster settlement times.
Speaking at a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) roundtable on May 12, SEC Chair Paul Atkins drew a comparison between the rise of onchain securities and the digital transformation of the music industry.
“Just as the shift to digital audio revolutionized the music industry, the migration to onchain securities has the potential to remodel aspects of the securities market by enabling entirely new methods of issuing, trading, owning, and using securities,”
Atkins said, noting that many of the Commission’s current rules may not yet accommodate such innovation.
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