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.
