TL;DR
Tokenised US Treasury funds have reached approximately $15 billion , expanding their role as collateral in blockchain-based lending and institutional trading.
Permissioned tokens, outdated asset valuations and limited weekend liquidity remain key obstacles to liquidating collateral efficiently across onchain markets.
Growing institutional adoption , including tokenised assets used as margin at CME Group, signals progress toward integrating blockchain infrastructure with traditional financial markets.
Bitfinex has examined the growing role of tokenised collateral ahead of The Future of Capital Markets Summit in Lugano, Switzerland, scheduled for next week. The report explores how blockchain -based financial assets are entering lending and derivatives markets while addressing the operational challenges that could shape their wider adoption.
Tokenised US Treasury funds have attracted particular interest, with approximately $15 billion in assets , according to RWA.xyz. Their combination of familiar underlying investments, relatively stable valuations and faster settlement makes them attractive to lenders seeking alternatives to traditional collateral management.
Bitfinex Examines Tokenised Collateral And Institutional Adoption
The expansion of tokenised Treasury products reflects a broader effort to make financial assets transferable and usable across digital financial infrastructure. By representing traditional investments on blockchain networks, issuers and market participants can potentially streamline collateral transfers, improve capital efficiency and reduce settlement delays .
Institutional adoption has already moved beyond experimentation. In 2025, crypto exchanges began accepting products such as BlackRock’s BUIDL fund as trading collateral through institutional custodians, with settlement taking place offchain. In December that year, staff at the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission indicated that tokenised Treasury securities and money market fund shares could serve as margin in US derivatives markets, provided the tokens conveyed the same rights as their underlying assets.
JPMorgan also tokenised the Invesco QQQ exchange-traded fund on July 15, 2025 , and posted tokenised assets as margin at CME Group on the same day. These developments illustrate how blockchain technology can connect established financial instruments with new settlement and collateral systems.
Liquidation Risks And Valuation Gaps Remain Important
Despite the progress, tokenised collateral introduces challenges that differ from those in conventional lending. Permissioned securities may only be held by approved wallets , restricting the number of participants eligible to acquire assets during liquidation. In decentralised lending , by comparison, any eligible participant can generally repay an underwater loan and claim its collateral, subject to the protocol’s rules.
This restriction can reduce the pool of potential liquidators and encourage lenders to impose lower loan-to-value limits . Redemption mechanisms that operate around the clock or transferable wrappers backed by permissioned fund shares could help address these constraints.
