The tokenized US Treasury market has crossed $10 billion in total value for the first time, per Token Terminal data reported by Cointelegraph on February 24, 2026. The milestone, which represents roughly 10x growth from under $1 billion in early 2024, arrives as crypto markets endure their worst stretch since the FTX collapse, with Bitcoin trading below $65,000 and ETF outflows now running five consecutive weeks.
The number is small against the $21 trillion US Treasury market. But it signals something that a price chart cannot: institutional capital is migrating onto public blockchains at an accelerating pace, and the two largest players are separated by just $6 million.
Circle's USYC Takes the Lead by the Thinnest of Margins
As of late January 2026, the leaderboard for tokenized treasuries looks like this, according to Arkham Intelligence:
| Product | Issuer | Market Cap | APY |
|---|---|---|---|
| USYC | Circle International | $1.69B | 3.01% |
| BUIDL | BlackRock | $1.68B | 3.45% |
| USDY | Ondo Finance | $1.20B | 3.63% |
| BENJI | Franklin Templeton | $892M | 3.54% |
| OUSG | Ondo Finance | $733M | 3.44% |
Circle's USYC leads BlackRock's BUIDL by approximately $6.14 million, a gap of 0.36%. But the trajectory is more telling than the snapshot: CryptoSlate reports that USYC grew 11% over the prior 30 days while BUIDL contracted by 2.85%.
The reason is mechanical, not reputational. USYC uses an accumulation model where yield compounds directly within the token. BUIDL distributes returns separately. For institutions using these tokens as collateral on exchanges, the accumulating model is operationally simpler. It was this workflow design, not brand recognition, that gave Circle the edge.
USYC also landed on Binance's institutional collateral rails in July 2024, four months before BUIDL gained the same integration in November. In a market where liquidity begets liquidity, that head start compounded.
From Under $1 Billion to $10 Billion in Two Years
The growth curve is worth examining in full. Tokenized US Treasuries sat below $1 billion in early 2024. By mid-2025, the figure had climbed past $7 billion. As of February 2026, it stands above $10 billion, growing 7% in the week before the milestone was reported.
Nine major institutions tokenized assets within a single ten-week window in fall 2025, per ainvest analysis. NYSE and DTCC are building on-chain settlement platforms. The coordinated timing suggests this is not experimentation but deployment.
A survey cited in the same analysis found that 58% of market participants face challenges managing collateral and margining. Tokenized treasuries solve this directly: they settle 24/7, move across chains, and can be posted as collateral without the multi-day clearing cycles that traditional treasuries require. The estimated operational savings from on-chain collateral flows reach $54 million annually.
The broader tokenized real-world asset market, which includes private credit, real estate, and commodities alongside treasuries, now sits at approximately $25 billion. Treasuries account for roughly 40% of that total, making them the anchor asset class for on-chain RWA.
Who Holds These Tokens and Why
The holder profiles differ sharply across products. BlackRock's BUIDL requires a minimum $5 million investment and restricts access to US Qualified Purchasers. Ethena currently holds approximately 57% of BUIDL's supply, roughly $605 million, as collateral backing its USDtb stablecoin.
Ondo Finance's USDY takes the opposite approach, targeting retail investors outside the US. It has accumulated over 17,000 holders, making it the most broadly distributed tokenized treasury product. Franklin Templeton's BENJI, at $892 million, serves as a digital-native money market fund that institutional investors can redeem 24/7.
The common thread is that none of these holders are buying tokenized treasuries for the yield alone. At 3.01% to 3.63% APY, the returns barely keep pace with inflation. The value proposition is composability: the ability to use a US government-backed instrument as collateral, transfer it instantly, and deploy it in DeFi protocols without waiting for T+1 settlement.
What $10 Billion Means for Crypto Card Users
The connection between tokenized treasuries and crypto cards is more direct than it appears. Several card issuers already use stablecoin reserves backed partly by tokenized treasuries. When a cardholder tops up a Coinbase or RedotPay account with USDC, a portion of the reserves backing that USDC may now flow through tokenized treasury products.
MetaMask recently launched auto-yield features that route idle stablecoins into yield-bearing tokens. As tokenized treasuries become more liquid and integrated, card wallets could eventually offer passive treasury yield on unspent balances, a feature that traditional bank debit cards have never matched.
The risk side matters too. Tokenized treasuries are not the same as holding a Treasury bill in a brokerage account. Smart contract risk, bridge risk, and regulatory risk all apply. The $10 billion figure represents a market that is still too small for the failures to be systemic, but large enough that a major exploit or regulatory reversal would be felt across DeFi.
The Race to $100 Billion
Industry projections peg 2026 as the year tokenized assets could push toward $100 billion, a 10x increase from current levels. That target is aggressive but not absurd. BNP Paribas, Europe's largest bank, recently put a French money market fund on Ethereum, signaling that public chain deployment is no longer a fringe experiment for major financial institutions.
The DTCC partnered with Digital Asset in December 2025 to tokenize DTC-custodied US Treasury securities on the Canton Network, bringing settlement infrastructure closer to the issuance layer. If clearing and custody both move on-chain, the friction that currently limits adoption drops by an order of magnitude.
The competition between Circle and BlackRock will likely intensify. BlackRock has the brand, the distribution network, and the institutional relationships. Circle has the operational integration, the stablecoin ecosystem, and a four-month head start on exchange collateral rails. With just $6 million separating them, the lead will change hands multiple times before the market settles.
For the broader crypto ecosystem, the $10 billion milestone represents a structural shift. In a market where Bitcoin is down more than 35% from its highs and altcoin sell pressure has hit a five-year extreme, tokenized treasuries are the one corner of crypto where capital is flowing in, not out. That divergence tells you where institutional conviction actually sits.
FAQ
What are tokenized US Treasuries? They are digital representations of US government debt instruments (Treasury bills, notes, or bonds) issued on a blockchain. Investors purchase tokens, the issuer buys actual Treasury securities, and the token holders earn the yield. They can be traded, transferred, or used as collateral 24/7 without traditional settlement delays.
Which tokenized treasury product is the largest? As of February 2026, Circle's USYC leads with approximately $1.69 billion in market cap, followed closely by BlackRock's BUIDL at $1.68 billion. Ondo Finance's USDY ranks third at $1.20 billion.
What yields do tokenized treasuries offer? Current yields range from approximately 3.01% (USYC) to 3.63% (USDY), roughly in line with the underlying Treasury bill rates. The yields fluctuate with Federal Reserve policy and short-term interest rates.
Are tokenized treasuries safe? They carry the credit risk of US government debt, which is generally considered the lowest-risk fixed income instrument. However, they add smart contract risk, bridge risk, and potential regulatory risk that traditional Treasury holdings do not have. They are not FDIC-insured or covered by SIPC.
Can I use tokenized treasuries with crypto cards? Not directly in most cases. However, several stablecoin issuers back their reserves partly with tokenized treasuries, creating an indirect connection. Wallet-level yield features like MetaMask's auto-yield could eventually route idle card balances into treasury-backed tokens.
Overview
The tokenized US Treasury market crossed $10 billion in total value for the first time in February 2026, marking a 10x increase from under $1 billion in early 2024. Circle's USYC leads BlackRock's BUIDL by just $6 million, with the advantage driven by operational integration into exchange collateral systems rather than brand recognition. Ondo Finance and Franklin Templeton round out the top four. The milestone arrives during a crypto bear market, making tokenized treasuries the primary on-chain asset class still attracting institutional capital. Industry projections target $100 billion in tokenized assets by end of 2026, supported by DTCC infrastructure buildouts and major bank deployments on public blockchains.
Recommended Reading
- BNP Paribas Puts a French Money Market Fund on Ethereum, Signaling That Europe's Largest Bank Is Done With Private Chains
- MetaMask Now Auto-Routes Stablecoin Swaps Into Yield-Bearing Tokens So Your Idle Dollars Never Stop Earning
- The SEC Just Slashed Stablecoin Capital Charges From 100 Percent to 2 Percent, and Broker-Dealers Are Already Circling
