MakerDAO’s $1B Tokenized Treasuries "Grand Prix" Attracts BlackRock, Ondo

MakerDAO's $1 billion tokenized assets initiative has caught the attention of BlackRock, Superstate, and Ondo Finance.

Known as "Grand Prix", MakerDAO’s competition will see the lending platform allocate $1 billion of its reserves in tokenized US Treasury products. Spark SubDAO, a builder on MakerDAO, said the focus will be on investing its reserves in short-term US treasury bills and "similar tokenized products."

MakerDAO is diversifying away from ETH and other cryptos to stablecoins under a proposal by its founder, Rune Christensen, called "Endgame." Spark is one of Christensen's first semi-autonomous DAOs working under the Maker brand.

Spark Protocol is a lending platform that is "poised to become the central hub for RWAs on Maker and Ethereum." Spark will allocate up to $500 million from its reserve assets to support the DAI stablecoin for the winners.

Carlos Domingo, CEO of tokenization platform Securitize, BlackRock's issuance partner, described the initiative as a "very good move from MakerDAO" and expressed that the firm is "excited to participate with BlackRock's BUIDL.

Superstate founder, Robert Leshner, said, "Superstate's USTB is an ideal partner for MakerDAO... We're excited that MakerDAO is creating an open process where we can introduce USTB to the community."

Nathan Allman, founder of Ondo Finance, added, "It's a natural fit in our mission of bringing institutional-grade financial products and services to everyone."

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