Bitcoin
Bitcoin Suisse issues tokenized securities on Polygon
The news comes at a time when the real-world tokenized asset sector is booming.
Bitcoin Suisse, a Swiss crypto-financial services provider that manages $5.57 billion in assets, has issued a tokenized securities product on Polygon.
Announced on June 11, the Bitcoin Suisse bond is considered investment quality and over-collateralized, meaning the value of the assets backing the bond exceeds that of the loan. Transactions are settled using USDC, the second largest stablecoin by market cap.
The bond was issued in partnership with Obligate, an on-chain capital markets platform that has helped many traditional companies issue blockchain-based bonds. Qualified investors using Obligate have invested directly in private debt issuance.
“The agreement creates faster, lower-cost access to capital for Bitcoin Suisse, while also creating a new investment opportunity in real-world tokenized assets for Obligate’s accredited investors,” said Obligate.
“Bitcoin Suisse remains committed to bridging the gap between traditional finance and decentralized technology,” said Sandro Huwyler, head of treasury at Bitcoin Suisse. “The milestone issuance of this tokenized bond reinforces our pioneering role in the industry.”
Bitcoin Suisse was one of the first institutions in Switzerland to offer loans secured by cryptographic assets to customers. Bitcoin Suisse will use the bond proceeds to support the growth of its domestic lending business.
Real-world on-chain assets grow
Bitcoin Suisse’s foray into on-chain bond issuance comes at a time when the real-world tokenized asset (RWA) sector is booming.
The market capitalization of tokenized treasury assets it has more than doubled since the beginning of the year, currently standing at more than $1.49 billion, according to Rwa.xyz.
The trend was driven by BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, launching the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), which has reached a market capitalization of US$462.3 million since launch in March. The Franklin Onchain US Government Money Fund (FOBXX) also grew 27% last quarter to $344.4 million.
Securities tokenization is also starting to gain momentum, with Misyon Bank, a leading Turkish investment bank, launch a real-world asset tokenization platform on Avalanche targeting corporate and government bonds last week. The company also became the first institution to offer corporate Eurobonds and Turkish sovereign bonds to retail investors.
Compel brings titles to the network
Obligate has been extremely active in tokenizing securities this year, with the company bringing on-chain securities from companies spanning aviation, logistics and invoice finance, and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in emerging markets.
In December, Oblige expanded on Base, Coinbase’s Layer 2 network, enabling the creation of on-chain equity debt markets on L2. The following month, Obligate was invited to join the Tokenized Assets Coalition alongside Coinbase and Circle. In April, the company joined with Mikro Capital to launch its first title on Base
Last September 2023, Oblige also released the first USDC-denominated structured investment product on Polygon.