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BlackRock just got more serious about blockchain. The asset management giant rolled out two tokenized money market funds on Ethereum, both aimed at stablecoin issuers who need to hold compliant reserves.
The first fund tokenizes shares of an existing Treasury liquidity strategy — basically wrapping a traditional product in blockchain rails. The second is a brand-new institutional vehicle, built from the ground up and designed to run across multiple blockchains, not just Ethereum. Both products are pretty clearly shaped by the US GENIUS Act, the federal framework that sets reserve rules for payment stablecoins. If you’re running a stablecoin and need to prove your reserves are clean and compliant, BlackRock is now selling you the tools to do it on-chain. That’s a significant shift. Traditional asset managers have been circling the crypto space for years, but this is a direct product play, not just a custody deal or an ETF wrapper.
Tether Prints $1.5 Billion in a Shrinking Market
While BlackRock was building, Tether was counting money. The stablecoin giant posted a $1.5 billion net operating profit in Q2, almost entirely driven by interest earned on US Treasury holdings. Short-term rates have stayed elevated long enough that Tether’s model — hold dollars, buy Treasuries, collect yield — keeps printing.
As of June 30, Tether’s reserve buffer sat at $4.11 billion. USDT circulating supply grew by $446 million during the quarter. And Tether still holds more than 60% of the stablecoin market, which is remarkable given how much pressure the broader sector has been under.
Not bad for a company operating in what some regulators still call a murky corner of finance.
The profitability is real, but the context matters. The stablecoin market itself contracted, and Tether still grew its share. That’s either a sign of deep user loyalty or a sign that competitors haven’t found a way to dent USDT’s network effects. Probably both.
American Bitcoin: Record Production, Still Losing Money
American Bitcoin — co-founded by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. — hit a production record in Q2. The company mined 932 BTC during the quarter, pushing revenue up to $67 million. That’s a real number. Operationally, things got more efficient.
But the company is still unprofitable. Losses narrowed, which is something, but they didn’t disappear. And the financial maneuvering required to stay listed on Nasdaq included a reverse stock split — never a great look, but sometimes a necessary one when your share price drifts into dangerous territory.
There’s also the collateral risk. American Bitcoin holds significant Bitcoin on its books, and if BTC prices drop sharply, that balance sheet gets uncomfortable fast. The company is essentially making a leveraged bet on Bitcoin’s price staying high enough to cover its costs and justify its existence as a public miner. That bet has worked better in some quarters than others.
Miners in general have had a rough time since the most recent halving compressed block rewards. Revenue per BTC mined dropped, and only the most efficient operations have stayed in the black. American Bitcoin’s Q2 numbers show improvement, but the gap between production gains and actual profitability is still wide.
Tokenized Gold Holds Up, But DeFi Adoption Lags
Elsewhere in the tokenized asset world, gold had an interesting quarter. During a sharp March sell-off, tokenized gold collateral faced liquidations — but the underlying products held up better than some expected. The resilience was real. The infrastructure, less so.
Per a RedStone report, only a small fraction of Tether Gold and PAX Gold is actually used as collateral on DeFi lending platforms like Aave v3 and Morpho. Given the market caps involved, that’s a surprisingly thin slice. The gap between how much tokenized gold exists and how much of it is doing anything useful in DeFi is still wide.
Gold futures also dropped more than 20% from their January highs, driven by expectations around rising US interest rates. That move put pressure on the tokenized versions too, though not catastrophically. The broader point is that tokenized gold has market interest — trading volumes have grown — but DeFi integration hasn’t kept pace. Infrastructure gaps are slowing adoption, and that’s not a problem that fixes itself quickly.
The GENIUS Act keeps coming up as the connective tissue across all of these stories. BlackRock built products around it. Tether operates in the reserve landscape it shapes. American Bitcoin mines the asset that sits underneath much of the stablecoin economy. And tokenized gold is trying to find its footing in the same DeFi world that stablecoins already dominate.
American Bitcoin’s reserve buffer stood at $4.11 billion as of June 30.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are BlackRock’s two new tokenized funds designed to do?
One tokenizes shares of an existing Treasury liquidity strategy, while the second is a new institutional vehicle supporting multiple blockchains — both built to help stablecoin issuers meet reserve requirements under the US GENIUS Act.
How much Bitcoin did American Bitcoin mine in Q2?
American Bitcoin mined a record 932 BTC in Q2, generating $67 million in revenue, though the company remained unprofitable despite narrowing losses.
