BlackRock Taps Polygon for Blockchain Expansion

• According to a recent X post by Token Terminal, BlackRock’s assets under management on Polygon had surpassed $30 million as of March 2025.
• The fund initially debuted on Ethereum in March 2024, and later, the asset manager expanded the BUIDL Fund to five new blockchains.

BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager with over $11 trillion in AUM, made a bold leap in digital assets in December 2024 by expanding its tokenized fund, the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), across five additional blockchain networks: Aptos (APT), Arbitrum (ARB), Avalanche (AVAX), Optimism’s OP Mainnet, and Polygon (MATIC).

Originally launched on Ethereum in March 2024, BUIDL is a tokenized money market fund backed by short-term U.S. government bonds, maintaining a stable value of $1 per token. By expanding beyond Ethereum, BlackRock has unlocked real-time, native interactions across multiple blockchain ecosystems.

The impact of this expansion became evident this month when data from Token Terminal revealed that BlackRock’s AUM on Polygon had soared past $30 million. This move not only strengthens the institutional adoption of tokenized assets but also empowers investors with on-chain yield opportunities, flexible custody solutions, near-instant peer-to-peer transfers, and seamless on-chain dividend accrual and distribution.

Polygon’s Role in BlackRock’s Blockchain Expansion

Polygon plays a crucial role as the infrastructure layer for BlackRock’s BUIDL program, providing the scalability required to support institutional investments. It achieves this by utilizing sidechains, also known as Plasma chains, to process transactions off the main Ethereum chain. This approach not only increases transaction throughput but also reduces congestion and significantly lowers transaction fees compared to Ethereum’s mainnet. Additionally, Polygon’s modular framework supports various scaling solutions, such as ZK rollups and optimistic rollups, enabling it to cater to different application needs.

BlackRock’s BUIDL on Polygon offers several key features, including on-chain yield generation, 24/7 peer-to-peer transfers, automated dividend accrual and distribution, and enhanced accessibility for DAOs and digital asset firms. Moreover, Polygon PoS ensures seamless EVM compatibility and account abstraction, making it an appealing choice for financial institutions and developers building blockchain-based financial solutions.

Beyond this, Brickken, a platform specializing in the tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs), has announced that it is now live on Polygon Proof-of-Stake (PoS) to enhance multi-chain tokenization capabilities. The expansion is expected to open up new investor opportunities within the Polygon ecosystem, bring hundreds of millions of tokenized assets to Polygon PoS, increase efficiency through the integration of established blockchain networks, and expand multi-chain functionality for businesses to manage tokenized assets with greater flexibility.

Despite its strong technological foundation, MATIC has faced significant price declines since reaching an all-time high of $2.92 in 2021. Currently, MATIC is down 78.8% over the past year and has dropped 13.9% in the last 14 days, trading at $0.2101, this is 92% below its peak. In the last 24 hours, its trading volume has fallen by 31.66% to $2.33 million, while its market capitalization stands at $402 million.