VBILL Will Compete With BlackRock and Franklin Templeton in Expanding RWA Market
Global investment firm VanEck has officially entered the tokenized real-world asset (RWA) space with the launch of its first onchain fund, VBILL, offering exposure to U.S. Treasury bills. The fund is developed in partnership with Securitize, a leading digital asset tokenization platform.
Announced on May 13, the VBILL fund will initially be available across four blockchains: Avalanche, BNB Chain, Ethereum, and Solana. Minimum investments are set at $100,000 for Avalanche, BNB Chain, and Solana, and $1 million for Ethereum-based deployments.
“This fund represents VanEck’s commitment to modernizing capital markets through blockchain-based infrastructure,” the company said in its launch statement.
Traditional Finance Expands Into Tokenized Assets
VanEck joins an increasingly competitive field of TradFi players tokenizing RWAs, following in the footsteps of:
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BlackRock, which launched its BUIDL fund
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Franklin Templeton, with its BENJI fund
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Apollo Global, which tokenized private credit assets earlier this year
According to RWA.xyz, U.S. Treasurys are now the second-largest tokenized asset class, behind private credit, with a market capitalization of $6.9 billion.
Securitize, VanEck’s partner on VBILL, has tokenized more than $3.9 billion worth of assets. In May 2024, Securitize raised $47 million in a funding round led by BlackRock, further affirming Wall Street’s growing appetite for blockchain-backed financial instruments.
Why Tokenize Real-World Assets?
Advocates argue that RWA tokenization offers several benefits over traditional financial rails:
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Faster settlement times
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Lower operational costs
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24/7 liquidity
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Fractional ownership of traditionally illiquid assets
VBILL aims to tap into these efficiencies by enabling institutional investors to hold and trade Treasury exposure with blockchain-native flexibility.
SEC Chair Endorses Onchain Securities Evolution
At the SEC’s roundtable on May 12, newly appointed Chair Paul Atkins expressed strong support for onchain securities.
“Just as the shift to digital audio revolutionized the music industry, the migration to onchain securities has the potential to remodel capital markets,” Atkins said.
He emphasized that blockchain’s programmable structure allows for entirely new models of issuing, owning, and trading assets — many of which fall outside the scope of current regulatory frameworks.
“The Commission must prepare to accommodate market innovations that weren’t envisioned when many of today’s rules were written,” Atkins added.
Final Thoughts: VanEck’s VBILL Signals Mainstreaming of Onchain Finance
With VBILL, VanEck is not only aligning with the tokenization trend sweeping across traditional finance, but also capitalizing on regulatory momentum and market readiness.
As U.S. regulators warm to blockchain-native securities and more institutional players enter the space, VBILL’s launch may represent a turning point for the mass adoption of tokenized funds, with real-world assets becoming the next frontier for DeFi and TradFi convergence.
