The Bank of International Settlements’ tokenization initiative, Project Agorá, has attracted the participation of over 40 firms, prompting the decision.
In response to the global RWA push, Hedera has established an asset tokenization studio. Tokenization is gaining significant momentum.
Hedera, a distributed ledger technology network, initiated its asset tokenization studio on September 17 to encourage the proliferation of real-world assets (RWAs) on its network.
The studio includes an open-source framework that simplifies the configuration, issuance, and management of tokenized RWAs, including equities and bonds. The studio provides comprehensive features that facilitate the issuing of bond coupons, stock dividends, permissioned whitelisting, and adherence to jurisdiction-specific regulations.
The toolkit enables developers to launch applications that support token minting, transfers, and redemption, and it includes integrations with MetaMask and Hedera WalletConnect that allow users to sign transactions.
Dr. Sabrina Tachdjian, head of fintech and payments at Hedera’s HBAR foundation, stated that the asset tokenization studio will help grow Hedera’s RWA ecosystem and move capital markets on-chain while focusing on compliance. This will be achieved by lowering technical barriers to tokenizing bonds and equities. The asset tokenization studio will expand in response to the demand for supplementary features, asset classifications, and jurisdictions, and this initial release serves as a starting point.
Hedera characterized the toolkit as an alternative to Ethereum’s ERC-1400 standard, which typically necessitates off-chain asset administration. In contrast, Hedera’s studio facilitates the tokenization of assets entirely on the blockchain.
The announcement of this introduction coincides with an increasing amount of interest in tokenized assets. In August 2023, an EY Parthenon survey revealed that 77% of institutional and high-net-worth investors are either currently engaged in or are considering tokenized assets.
As part of its design phase, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), an international institution that includes global central banks, announced on Sept. 16 that 41 finance firms have joined Project Agorá, a tokenization initiative that was initiated by BIS and seven central banks.
The firms will work in conjunction with central banks to develop mechanisms for the integration of tokenized commercial bank deposits with tokenized central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) on a unified ledger.
The project’s objective is to optimize cross-border remittances by emphasizing customer verification and anti-money laundering (AML) procedures.
“The initiative […] will examine the seamless integration of tokenized commercial bank deposits with tokenized wholesale central bank money in a public-private programmable core financial infrastructure,” stated the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).
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