Key Insights:
- Crypto news today was shaken as Binance launched an off-exchange collateral program with Franklin Templeton’s BENJI platform.
- Meanwhile, BlackRock’s BUIDL fund gained compliant liquidity access through UniswapX.
- The tokenized US Treasuries market crossed $10 billion in late January 2026, making distribution infrastructure the new competitive frontier for major asset managers.
Binance and Franklin Templeton announced a live institutional collateral program on February 11, allowing eligible clients to post tokenized shares of money market funds issued through Franklin’s Benji platform as trading collateral.
Assets remained off-exchange in third-party custody while their value was mirrored within Binance’s trading environment via Ceffu’s settlement infrastructure.
The crypto news move expanded Binance’s existing tokenized fund framework. The exchange integrated BlackRock’s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund as eligible off-exchange collateral in November 2025.
BlackRock also committed to launching a BUIDL share class on BNB Chain at that time.
Crypto News: BlackRock Gains DeFi Liquidity Path
The same day brought crypto news from Uniswap Labs and Securitize.
The firms launched an integration that allowed investors to convert between BUIDL and USDC around the clock.
The system used UniswapX’s request-for-quote workflow with pricing from approved market participants and atomic on-chain settlement.
Access remained limited to pre-qualified participants. Securitize Markets facilitated the process while maintaining controls over investor eligibility.
The structure borrowed DeFi’s continuous settlement while preserving compliance with institutional requirements.
Circle established the precedent for exchange-based distribution in July 2025. The stablecoin issuer partnered with Binance to add USYC to the exchange’s institutional collateral offering and issue USYC on BNB Chain.
Additionally, it marked a successful crypto news case, as USYC jumped from less than $300 million to the current $1.6 billion in market size.
Market Scale Drives Infrastructure Competition
Tokenized US Treasuries reached $10.6 billion in total value as of press time, according to RWA.xyz data.
BlackRock’s BUIDL stood at roughly $2.2 billion, while Circle’s USYC sat at $1.6 billion. Franklin’s BENJI, which was once the sector leader, held approximately $848 million at that time.
As per the crypto news, the concentrated scale made major distribution rails worth fighting for. Binance positioned both BUIDL and Benji-issued shares as regulated, yield-bearing instruments under its off-exchange framework.
Uniswap Labs marketed institutional access through products such as its Trading API and UniswapX.
Crypto News: Collateral Models Reduce Counterparty Risk
The crypto news showed that Binance designed its Franklin program around custody segregation and the mirroring of collateral values. The approach explicitly reduced counterparty risk while improving capital efficiency for institutions.
Traders avoided pre-funding exchange wallets while accessing Binance liquidity.
The UniswapX structure leaned into similar controls. It limited participation to eligible investors, sourced pricing from approved counterparties, and settled trades atomically on-chain.
The design language differed sharply from open retail DeFi models.
Roger Bayston, Head of Digital Assets at Franklin Templeton, framed the collaboration as a matter of operational utility. He said the program lets clients put assets to work in third-party custody while earning yield in new ways.
Competition Reshapes Product Rankings
The market moved beyond a two-issuer race. Ondo’s USDY ranked alongside USYC, BUIDL, and BENJI as one of the top products. Distribution and venue integrations quickly shifted rankings.
Competitive differentiation emerged at the network layer, with crypto news showing that Ethereum accounting for 53% of infrastructure usage by asset issuance.
Collateral and liquidity routes depended on the selected chain. Catherine Chen, Head of VIP & Institutional at Binance, connected the moves to market evolution.
She said partnering with Franklin Templeton to offer tokenized real-world assets as off-exchange collateral represented a natural step in bringing digital assets and traditional finance closer together.
Secondary Liquidity Becomes Growth Lever
The Uniswap Labs-Securitize setup addressed a structural problem, sparking discussions in the crypto news space. Tokenized fund shares historically lacked secondary liquidity outside banking hours.
The RFQ-mediated path delivered institutional-grade execution with near-instant BUIDL-to-USDC conversion and atomic settlement.
Ian Loh, CEO of Ceffu, observed that institutions increasingly require trading models that prioritize risk management without sacrificing capital efficiency.
The custody and settlement infrastructure that his firm provided supported that shift.
Standard Chartered analysts predicted tokenized RWAs could reach $2 trillion by 2028, excluding stablecoins from that projection.
Major crypto institutions proved willing to attach large forward numbers to tokenization infrastructure.
Controlled DeFi Emerges as Liquidity Primitive
The compliant approach preserved controls while borrowing DeFi’s always-on settlement.
Allowlists, approved RFQ counterparties, and auditable settlements made on-chain execution institutionally legible.
The boundary between crypto stablecoins for settlement and tokenized MMFs for yield-plus-collateral became operational rather than conceptual.
Academic work examined how the large crypto-sector demand for T-bills via stablecoin reserves could affect yields.
The research provided evidence that crypto rails combined with Treasuries mattered beyond crypto markets.
The Franklin-Binance launch was built on a broader strategic collaboration announced in September 2025.
Both parties framed the February move as an expansion of existing work.
The sequencing showed crypto exchange Binance systematically adding issuers to its off-exchange collateral framework.
Crypto Market Structure Competition Intensifies
The February 11 announcements read as competitive positioning around liquidity location. Exchange collateral desks competed with compliant on-chain RFQ venues.
The fight centered on which rails would capture institutional flow as the sector scaled.
Uniswap’s product positioning emphasized infrastructure plugging into institutional workflows.
The Securitize collaboration used RFQ subscribers and allowlisting to ensure on-chain execution met risk and compliance requirements.
RWA.xyz data showed the broader real-world asset market at $24.7 billion in distributed value, with Treasuries accounting for the largest share.
The crypto news figures supported the claim that tokenized collateral had become a legitimate topic in market-structure discussions.
The transition from “token issuance” to “market-structure” competition marked a maturation point. Issuers and venues competed on utility improvements such as collateral eligibility, USDC convertibility, and 24/7 settlement, rather than on yield marketing alone.
Both announcements emphasized controls that are legible to regulators and risk committees. Custody segregation, participant gating, and auditable settlement defined the acceptable tokenization path.
The operational requirements shaped which products secured major distribution integrations.
Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2026/02/11/crypto-news-binance-and-blackrock-partnerships-signal-new-era-for-tokenized-assets/
