DeFi
Bitcoin Suisse issues tokenized bond on Polygon
The news comes as the real-world token assets sector is booming.
Bitcoin Suisse, a Swiss crypto-financial services provider managing $5.57 billion in assets, has issued a tokenized bond product on Polygon.
Announced on June 11, the Bitcoin Suisse bond is considered investment grade and is oversized, 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 capitalization.
The bond was issued in partnership with Obligate, a blockchain capital markets platform that has helped many large companies issue blockchain-based bonds. Qualified investors using Obligate invested directly in the private debt issuance.
“The agreement creates faster, lower-cost access to capital for Bitcoin Suisse, while at the same time creating a new investment opportunity in tokenized real assets for Obligate’s accredited investors,” Obligate said.
“Bitcoin Suisse remains committed to bridging the gap between traditional finance and decentralized technology,” said Sandro Huwyler, Head of Treasury at Bitcoin Suisse. “The significant milestone of issuing this token bond reinforces our pioneering role in the industry.”
Bitcoin Suisse was one of the first Swiss institutions to offer its clients loans backed by crypto assets. Bitcoin Suisse will use funds from the bond to support the growth of its domestic lending business.
Real on-chain assets are increasing
Bitcoin Suisse’s foray into on-chain bond issuance comes as the real-world tokenized assets (RWA) sector is booming.
The market capitalization of tokenized treasury assets has more than doubled since the start of the year, currently standing at over $1.49 billion, according to Rwa.xyz.
This trend was supported by BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, which launched the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), which has since reached a market capitalization of $462.3 million. launch in March. The Franklin Onchain US Government Money Fund (FOBXX) also grew 27% over the last quarter to $344.4 million.
Bond tokenization is also starting to gain momentum, with Misyon Bank, one of Turkey’s leading investment banks, 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.
Obligate brings bonds on-chain
Obligate has been extremely active in bond tokenization this year, with the company on-chaining bonds from companies spanning aviation, logistics and invoice financing, as well as small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) on Emerging Markets.
In December, Mandatory extended on Base, Coinbase’s Layer 2 network, enabling the creation of on-chain capital and debt markets on L2. The following month, Obligate was invited to join the Tokenized Assets Coalition alongside Coinbase and Circle. In April, the company associates with Mikro Capital to launch its first bond on Base
Last September 2023, also Mandatory spear the first structured investment product denominated in USDC on Polygon.