Tokenization of RWAs Gets Push in Europe as AXA, Generali Buys SocGen's Green Bonds on Ethereum
SocGen said tokenized bonds provide greater transparency and traceability, as well as speedier transactions and settlements.
Updated Mar 8, 2024, 6:12 p.m. Published Dec 4, 2023, 5:30 p.m.
French banking giant Societe Generale completed its first tokenized green bond issuance on the Ethereum network as tokenization of real-world assets (RWA) is rising in demand among traditional financial institutions.
SocGen issued €10 million ($10.8 million) worth of digital green bond tokens, registered by SG-FORGE, the bank's digital asset-focused arm, the firm said Monday in a press release. Traditional finance institutions AXA Investment Managers (AXA IM) and Generali Investments purchased the tokenized bonds.
The bank will use the net proceeds of the bond sale to finance or refinance sustainable activities.
The issuance underscores traditional financial (TradFi) institutions' growing appetite for using blockchain-based technologies, including tokenization and stablecoins. Last month, JPMorgan and Apollo made headlines by demonstrating with a handful of crypto firms how asset managers could tokenize funds on the blockchain. Tokenization means placing assets like bonds, credit or real estate to blockchains in the form of a token.
Investment management firm 21.co forecasted that the market value of tokenized assets could reach $10 trillion as more RWAs migrate to blockchain plumbing.
The digital format of the issued bonds provides greater transparency and traceability as well as speedier transactions and settlements, according to the bank.
The bond issuance was "also a first step towards using blockchain as a data repository and certification tool for issuers and investors to foster transparency on ESG and impact data on a global scale," SocGen said.
AXA IM, which is the asset management arm of French insurance giant AXA purchased €5 million worth of bonds on behalf of AXA France using the euro-pegged stablecoin EURCV helmed by SG-FORGE as part of a joint blockchain experiment, the company said in a separate press release Monday. Societe
"The aim of this initiative, carried out in collaboration with SG-FORGE, was to enable us to experiment the use of a stablecoin as a settlement asset to purchase a digital bond," AXA IM's head of innovation and strategic initiatives Laurence Arnold said in a statement.
Krisztian Sandor
Krisztian Sandor recently graduated from NYU's business and economic reporter program as a Fulbright fellow and worked with Reuters and Forbes previously. Originally from Budapest, Hungary, he is now based in New York. He holds BTC and ETH.
