KAIO bridges traditional finance and DeFi with Hedera integration

KAIO just rewired institutional investing by bringing BlackRock, Brevan Howard, and Laser Digital’s funds onchain via Hedera, creating a real bridge between regulated money markets and programmable DeFi liquidity.

Summary

• KAIO has onboarded BlackRock, Brevan Howard, and Laser Digital’s funds onto Hedera, marking the first large-scale tokenization of major institutional vehicles.
• These funds now operate on-chain with programmable features like instant settlement and DeFi composability, giving accredited investors native access to money markets, macro, and crypto yield strategies.
• KAIO’s launch signals a structural shift in TradFi, with blockchain-native versions of funds like BlackRock’s $1.3T liquidity fund now theoretically usable in DeFi protocols.

According to a press release on Thursday 14, KAIO,  a protocol purpose-built for real world assets, has onboarded three heavyweight institutional funds, including BlackRock’s ICS US Dollar Liquidity Fund, Brevan Howard’s Master Fund, and Laser Digital’s Carry Fund, onto the Hedera network. 

The move marks the first time these traditionally opaque investment vehicles have been tokenized at scale, granting accredited investors blockchain-native access to strategies spanning money markets, macro trading, and crypto yield generation. 

By leveraging Hedera’s enterprise-grade distributed ledger, KAIO’s infrastructure ensures compliance while enabling programmable features like instant settlements and DeFi composability.

The institutional onchain tipping point?

KAIO’s move to bring BlackRock, Brevan Howard, and Laser Digital funds onchain represents more than a technological upgrade; it is a structural shift in how institutional capital can interact with blockchain ecosystems.

The three funds now live on Hedera through KAIO’s platform represent distinct but equally critical pillars of modern finance. Laser Digital’s Carry Fund, for example, isn’t just a tokenized wrapper for a crypto fund. It’s a Cayman-registered vehicle now operating with blockchain-native efficiency, capturing arbitrage opportunities and staking yields while maintaining institutional-grade risk controls.

Similarly, BlackRock’s money market fund, with its $1.3 trillion in assets, could now theoretically serve as collateral in DeFi protocols, a concept that would have been unthinkable even two years ago. Brevan Howard’s inclusion is equally telling; the hedge fund’s participation suggests even the most guarded corners of TradFi see value in onchain programmability for subscriptions, redemptions, and reporting.