Arbitrum DAO Greenlights $11.6M Tokenized Treasury Allocation in STEP 2 Rollout

Arbitrum DAO Greenlights $11.6M Tokenized Treasury Allocation in STEP 2 Rollout

The Arbitrum Foundation has confirmed that the Arbitrum DAO has approved the second phase of its Stable Treasury Endowment Program (STEP), committing 35 million ARB (approximately $11.6 million) to tokenized U.S. Treasurys through top institutional asset managers.

Following a competitive proposal process that reviewed over 50 submissions, the DAO voted to distribute the funds across three issuers: 35% to Franklin Templeton’s FOBXX (tokenized as BENJI), 35% to Spiko’s USTBL, and 30% to WisdomTree’s WTGXX. The allocations were recommended by a community-elected committee prioritizing low fees, strong total value locked (TVL), risk-adjusted profiles, and active community engagement.

The proposal passed with overwhelming support—nearly 89% voted in favor, 0.01% opposed, and 11% abstained. Voting began on May 1 and concluded Thursday morning at 9 a.m. ET.

“This level of collaboration with legacy institutions like BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, Spiko, and WisdomTree is a landmark moment for the crypto industry,” said Matthew Fiebach, co-founder of Entropy Advisors, which submitted the proposal on behalf of the committee. “Arbitrum continues to lead the way in bridging decentralized finance and traditional finance.”

Franklin Templeton’s Head of Digital Assets, Roger Bayston, praised the partnership: “Being chosen for STEP 2 deepens our bond with Arbitrum’s ecosystem. Leveraging their Layer 2 infrastructure enables us to provide more efficient, scalable solutions for our clients.”

STEP was launched in July 2024 as Arbitrum DAO’s first initiative to deploy treasury reserves into tokenized real-world assets. Its initial phase generated close to $700,000 in yield from $30 million invested in products from BlackRock, Ondo, and Mountain Protocol.

The market for tokenized Treasurys has surged to $6.8 billion, led by BlackRock’s BUIDL with $2.8 billion in assets. Franklin Templeton’s BENJI follows with $763 million, while WisdomTree and Spiko have $108 million and $71 million, respectively.

With this second tranche, Arbitrum DAO’s total RWA deployments exceed $45 million. Arbitrum-based platforms now manage over $240 million in onchain real-world assets—a 50-fold increase from the previous year.

The Foundation says STEP is just the beginning, aiming to expand into new asset classes such as venture capital, credit markets, and commodities. “STEP not only resolves the inefficiency of idle capital but also lays the groundwork for a diversified, yield-bearing treasury for the DAO,” the Foundation stated.

As of the latest data, Arbitrum’s ARB token is trading up 7.7% at $0.33.