Ethereum Tokenized Assets Surge to 25% DeFi Utilization

Tokenized fund assets on Ethereum have seen a significant surge in DeFi utilization, jumping from 8% to 25% over the past three years. This shift means that traditional finance instruments such as money market funds and Treasury products are no longer just sitting idle but are being actively used within the DeFi ecosystem.

BlackRock's BUIDL fund, a tokenized U.S. Treasury product, is an example of this trend. Launched in 2024, it has been used by DeFi protocols such as Ethena and Spark as collateral, giving the fund a second life beyond its yield-bearing face value.

Other institutions have also entered the market, with JPMorgan Asset Management introducing its tokenized money market fund JLTXX in May 2026, following an earlier fund seeded at $100M. UBS and VanEck have also launched their own tokenized funds, designed to function as DeFi collateral.

Ethereum remains the dominant blockchain for tokenized real-world assets, with its share of the overall market showing signs of softening as the ecosystem expands. Standard Chartered analysts have projected that the broader tokenized asset market could eventually reach into the trillions.