Moody’s Ratings, a global credit rating agency, has awarded an “A-bf” bond fund rating to Hill Lights International Limited for managing OpenEden’s tokenized United States Treasury bills, known as TBILL Tokens.
This high credit rating indicates that the bond fund is deemed to have a strong ability to achieve its financial objectives, although the highest rating would be a triple-A (AAA) rating. Moody’s is recognized as one of the top three global credit rating agencies, along with Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings.
The fund primarily invests in U.S. Treasury bills and government securities, which are considered secure investments due to the backing of the U.S. government.
Tokenization involves converting ownership rights to an asset into a digital token on a blockchain, enabling the online trading of assets like bonds, real estate, and artworks.
OpenEden’s TBILL is exclusively available to institutional investors and currently holds a value of over $36 million, offering an anticipated annual return of 4.99% with a 0.05% transaction fee. The fund, as mentioned on the company’s website, enables users to access U.S. Treasurys through smart contracts without any restrictions on trading hours or location.
Moody’s has previously rated various tokenized bonds, including those issued by the European Investment Bank (EIB).
The tokenization of over $1.5 billion in U.S. Treasurys signifies a significant milestone in merging traditional finance with blockchain technology. Major players on Wall Street such as BlackRock and Franklin Templeton are spearheading this movement. BlackRock launched the USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), which quickly amassed $462.7 million in assets. Franklin’s OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund (FOBXX) holds $357.6 million and is tokenized on both the Stellar and Polygon blockchains.
Woo X Exchange introduced the world’s first tokenized T-bills for retail customers in April, enabling investors to earn yield on USD Coin (USDC) holdings backed by U.S. T-bills.