👷 Real World Assets Infrastructure

TradFi brings the capital while on-chain builds the infrastructure. Arbitrum DAO has approved an additional $15 million to invest in RWA, while Kadena kicked off a $25 million grant program for tokenized real estate. 🏠

The biggest winner of on-chain infrastructure this week has been Mantra, whose native OM token has surged by over 70% these past three weeks. The organization recently secured its Dubai crypto license and, for those interested, gave an excellent interview that covers the ecosystem, plans, and more. 🎤

All the while, doubts have been growing over whether Ft Knox, famous for its alleged gold reserves, is indeed chocked full of the shiny yellow metal. While an audit seems closer than ever, the fact we’re even speculating makes a good case for tokenized gold, as outlined in a recent article. 🥇

👀 Stan Chart & State Initiatives

Standard Chartered, known for its $30 trillion tokenized asset prediction, is making big moves. It’s working with Animoca and HKT on HKD-backed stablecoin, partnering with StratisX to beef up its stablecoin infrastructure in the process. Not content with just stablecoins, Stan Chart is also supporting ChinaAMC with its tokenized money market fund. All in all, it was a big week for the company. 👏

All this corporate stablecoin talk clearly shows that central banks are interested. The ECB responded to calls for a permanent wholesale CBDC, with the head of the BIS asking whether or not such a tech could even compete with private stablecoins. ❓

We’ll soon find out, as Nigeria’s new cNGN stablecoin is officially live, and there seems to be significant user interest in Israel’s digital shekel CBDC initiative. Meanwhile, the UK is moving similarly, with the nation’s only CSD, Euroclear, joining the digital securities sandbox. 🏖️

🌐 Global Tokenization Initiatives

All around the world, deals are being struck, and assets are moving on-chain. Hong Kong revealed its ASPIRE plan to continue its journey to become a digital asset hub, and Korea recently granted corporates access to crypto and tokenization tech. 🐉

Tether, always working on something, signed an agreement with the nation of Guinea to explore blockchain. At the same time, Taurus launched a Solana-based custody and tokenization platform for banks to make the process easier than ever before. Banks may soon be able to pay with this stuff, as Quantoz Payments, NPEX, and Dusk are all working on their digital euro. 💳

Speaking of payments, Hitachi Payment Services has officially invested in Spydra to expand its blockchain footprint, and the BIS’ Project Rialto is looking to DeFi for inspiration as it explores FX for retail cross-border transactions. 🗺️

☺️ Thank You For Being You

Things move fast these days.

It’s important to slow down and appreciate the exciting times we’re living through.

The Roman emperor Marcus Aureliu once said: “Do not disturb yourself by imagining your whole life at once.”

All good things take time – like tokenizing the world or writing this newsletter.

We’re just glad you’re here for both.

Have a fantastic weekend and week, and we’ll see you next time!