The market value of tokenized U.S. Treasuries this week surpassed the $5 billion for the first time, rwa.xyz data shows, as demand for blockchain-based real-world assets (RWAs) accelerates.

The asset class grew by $1 billion through just two weeks, led by inflows into asset management giant BlackRock’s and digital asset firm Securitize’s market leading BUIDL.

Crypto tokens backed by U.S. Treasuries are at the forefront of the tokenization trend, which have captivated a host of global financial behemoths and digital asset firms. Fidelity Investments is the latest large U.S. asset manager seeking to create a tokenized money market fund, filing for regulatory approval last week to launch its Fidelity Treasury Digital Liquidity on the Ethereum blockchain.

«We see promise in tokenization and its ability to be transformative to the financial services industry by driving transactional efficiencies with access and allocation of capital across markets,» Cynthia Lo Bessette, head of Fidelity Digital Asset Management, told CoinDesk in a statement.

Tokenized Treasuries allow investors to park idle cash on blockchains to earn a yield — like with a money market fund. Increasingly, they are also used as a reserve asset for decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols. Another use case with significant potential is using these tokens as collateral in trading and asset management.

«In looking at use-cases, posting a tokenized asset as non-cash collateral to satisfy margin requirements could improve operational infrastructures and enhance capital efficiency,” she added.

Her words echo Donna Milrod’s, chief product officer of State Street, another Boston-based asset management and banking giant that is exploring tokenization of bonds and money market funds. She said in an earlier interview that collateral tokens could have helped avoid or alleviate, for example, the «liability-driven» crisis in 2022, allowing pension funds and asset managers to use money market fund tokens for margin calls instead of liquidating their assets to raise cash.

Read more: Tokenization Allows More Efficient Collateral Transfers, Digital Asset, Euroclear and World Gold Council Found in Pilot Project

The growth trend won’t stop anytime soon.

Securitize said earlier today that BUIDL is on track to surpass $2 billion in assets by early April from $1.7 billion currently. Meanwhile, Spark, the ecosystem partner of DAI stablecoin issuer Sky (formerly MakerDAO), plans to allocate $1 billion to BUIDL, Superstate’s USTB and Centrifuge’s fund managed with Anemoy and Janus Henderson.

GameStop (GME) has added its name to the quickly-growing roster of publicly-traded companies adopting a bitcoin treasury strategy.

Alongside its fourth quarter earnings report, the company said its board unanimously approved adding bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset.

CEO Ryan Cohen in early February got tongues wagging when he posted a picture of himself and Strategy (MSTR) Executive Chairman Michael Saylor at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago.

Several days later, Strive Asset Management CEO Matt Cole sent a letter to Cohen urging GME to use at least part of its nearly $5 billion of cash on hand to purchase bitcoin. Co-founded by Vivek Ramaswamy, Strive is an owner of GME through its ETFs.

«We believe GameStop has an incredible opportunity to transform its financial future by becoming the premier bitcoin treasury company in the gaming sector,» wrote Cole.

Cohen further raised eyebrows when he tweeted out, «Letter received.»

GME shares are up 5.7% in after hours trading. Bitcoin has gained modestly on the news, now trading at $88,500, ahead about 0.2% from 24 hours ago.

The long-running legal battle between Ripple Labs and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) seems to finally be near an end, with Ripple emerging victorious.

The SEC will return the lion’s share of the $125 million-court ordered fine paid by Ripple last year, according to a Tuesday X post from Ripple’s chief legal officer Stuart Alderoty, keeping just $50 million and returning the $75 million balance to Ripple.

The proposed settlement, which is subject to commissioner and court approval, comes just a week after the SEC agreed to drop its appeal of U.S. District Court judge Analisa Torres’ 2023 ruling that Ripple’s programmatic sales of XRP to retail exchanges did not violate federal securities laws. Torres found that only Ripple’s institutional sales violated securities laws, ordering Ripple to pay the $125 million fine. Though hefty, the fine was a mere fraction of the nearly $2 billion in civil penalties, disgorgement and prejudgement interest the SEC initially requested.

As part of the pending settlement agreement, Ripple has agreed to drop its cross-appeal of the SEC’s appeal. Alderoty also said that the SEC will ask the court to lift the standard injunction imposed against Ripple.

XRP jumped 1.5% higher in the minutes following the news before paring some of the gains, changing hands at around $2.47 recently. The token was down 0.5% over the past 24 hours, in line with bitcoin (BTC) and the broader crypto market benchmark CoinDesk 20 Index’s performance.

A representative for the SEC did not immediately respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment.

— Krisztian Sandor contributed reporting.