By Riley Kaminer
Did anyone else feel like there could have been more web3 programming during Miami Tech Month? If so, not to fear – today’s news was worth the wait: Miami-based asset tokenization startup Securitize announced a $47 million fundraise.
The round was led by none other than BlackRock, the $10 trillion asset management firm led by Larry Fink, who is perhaps the most diamond-handed of all the crypto whales in the public eye – and especially of those coming from the world of TradFi. $900 billion AUM Hamilton Lane, digital asset investor ParaFi Capital, and financial data marketplace Tradeweb Markets also participated in the round. In total, Securitize has raised over $147 million, according to Crunchbase.
Longtime BlackRock executive Joseph Chalom, currently the company’s Global Head of Strategic Ecosystem Partnerships, will join Securitize’s board as part of this investment. “At BlackRock, we believe that tokenization has the potential to drive a significant transformation in capital markets infrastructure,” Chalom said in a statement. “Our investment in Securitize is another step in the evolution of our digital assets strategy. We are pleased to lead this investment round alongside other participants and help foster innovation that will help meet the future needs of our clients.”
In March, BlackRock launched its first tokenized fund, the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL for short), enabling crypto investors to receive dividends off the back of U.S. Treasury Bills without having to convert their holdings into fiat. In the first week alone, the product attracted more than $240 million of deposits, according to Bloomberg.
Securitize is no stranger to financial giants: Morgan Stanley co-led Securitize’s $48 million round in 2021. Part of what makes Securitize so attractive to these major players is the startup’s focus on compliance. The company shared that this funding will enable it to expand the terms of its existing licenses while also launching tokens on new blockchains.
“Being able to become a provider for BlackRock, for a small company like us, has been quite a journey,” Securitize CEO Carlos Domingo [pictured above], who founded the company alongside Jamie Finn in 2017, told Fortune. “[BlackRock’s participation] signals to the market that this is not a one-off project that we’re doing, but the intention is to be a long-term strategic relationship.”
But what is this future, exactly? In short: the tokenization of everything “real.” In layman’s terms, that means taking traditional assets like stocks and currencies and putting them onto a blockchain.
This could be a big deal for two reasons. First is the BUIDL case study: creating web3 friendly versions of traditional financial products. The second and likely more profitable option: creating web3 products for Web 2.0 investors.
“Tokenization, by allowing this very efficient fractional ownership, and with all this multitude of investors and securities in an efficient way, opens up democratization,” Domingo said.
READ MORE IN REFRESH MIAMI:
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- BlockApps is creating new liquid trading markets – and it’s on the chain
- Online crypto casino MyPrize lands $13 million pre-launch
