Traditional finance giants BlackRock and Apollo Global Management are making decisive moves into DeFi by integrating tokenized assets. BlackRock connected its $2.4 billion BUIDL fund with UniswapX, while Apollo integrated its lending into the Morpho protocol, acquiring rights to up to 90 million MORPHO tokens. These integrations, alongside a negative carry environment for leveraged ETH staking, signal a major institutional shift toward on-chain capital markets.
Traditional finance giants are placing tokenized assets directly on the blockchain. A report states that BlackRock and Apollo Global Management have fully integrated their offerings with decentralized finance protocols.
BlackRock linked its $2.4 billion Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) with UniswapX. Apollo, which manages $940 billion in traditional assets, integrated its lending framework with the Morpho protocol.
The agreement allows Apollo to purchase up to 90 million MORPHO tokens over four years, representing 9% of the total supply. The price of MORPHO tokens surged 17.8% following the partnership announcement.
BlackRock’s integration uses UniswapX for off-chain order routing and on-chain settlement. This approach allows large investors to trade BUIDL for USDC while maintaining compliance through its partner Securitize.
Apollo’s move into Morpho enables it to create custom, isolated lending pools for tokenized private credit. The report notes this contrasts with protocols requiring governance approval, as Morpho permits permissionless market creation.
Simultaneously, the leveraged ETH staking market is facing a negative carry environment. Borrowing rates have risen to 3.40%, now exceeding staking yields for major liquid staking tokens.
This creates estimated annualized losses of -1.9% for 5x leveraged positions. Data indicates concentration in ETH borrowing and multi-week redemption times are increasing institutional exit risks.
