Standard Chartered, Blackrock and OKX launch tokenized MMF collateral framework

Standard Chartered, Blackrock and OKX launch tokenized MMF collateral framework for institutional crypto trading.

OKX has announced a new framework with Blackrock and Standard Chartered to integrate Blackrock’s tokenized money market fund BUIDL into collateral workflows.

This marks a first: a globally systemically important bank acting as regulated custodian in a live collateral structure bridging traditional finance and crypto markets.

Source: Standard Chartered

➡️ Why this matters

Tokenized MMFs have long been positioned as superior collateral due to 24/7 settlement and programmability. But in practice, adoption has stalled due to:

- issuer risk concerns

- lack of deep secondary liquidity

- limited institutional-grade custody frameworks

Through this joint framework OKX VIP and institutional clients can post BUIDL as collateral held off-exchange in regulated custody at Standard Chartered, while trading seamlessly on OKX Middle East, eliminating the need to move assets between venues. In addition, BUIDL can be deposited and traded on-exchange, and used as yield-bearing collateral for margin trading.

This strongly implies a standardized haircut / margin methodology has been agreed for BUIDL acceptance. For more context on the details of BUILD, access this previous Market Insight Note here and here.

It follows similar collateral integrations involving Franklin Templeton’s BENJI between OKX and Standard Chartered last year.

➡️ What to watch

The true validation will come when meaningful trading volume is financed using BUIDL.

Because ultimately collateral utility only scales if secondary market liquidity scales with it. Per the announcement, BUIDL will be tradable on OKX Middle East, which could help bootstrap that liquidity layer.

This launch serves as the most important attempt at kick start tMMF's use case as collateral in onchain finance. This launch serves as the most important attempt at kick start tMMF's use case as collateral in onchain finance. And when the collateral use case gets unlocked at scale, it would serve as an additional accelerant for tokenized MMF AUM growth.

Samara Cohen, Global Head of Market Development at BlackRock: “The framework with OKX and Standard Chartered allows qualified investors to unlock new opportunities in how they deploy collateral.”

Haider Rafique, Global Managing Partner at OKX: "By enabling institutions to deploy BUIDL as on-chain collateral on OKX’s global platform, we improve capital efficiency."

Margaret Harwood-Jones, Global Head of Financing and Securities Services at Standard Chartered: “By providing secure custody of BUIDL for this collateral use case, we are helping to ensure clients can access digital asset opportunities with the high standards of protection and compliance."

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