French multinational financial conglomerate Societe Generale has issued its first digital green bond on a blockchain network.
According to a Reuters report, the Paris-headquartered banking group has nearly $11 million worth of three-year senior unsecured bonds on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain. The bank added that AXA Investment Managers and Generali Investments “have fully subscribed to the related security tokens via private placement.”
Notably, AXA Investment acquired and issued Societe Generale’s euro-denominated ERC-20 stablecoin, called EUR CoinVertible (EURCV), for €5 million. The bank plans to spend the proceeds on projects focused on environmental benefits, including renewable energy and low-carbon transportation.
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Societe Generale announced its EURCV stablecoin in April 2023, hoping to bridge the gap between traditional capital markets and the digital asset ecosystem. However, the announcement was met with skepticism by Stasis, a company behind the euro-pegged stablecoin EURS, which highlighted the potential risks and ‘single point of failure’ problem associated with stablecoins issued by commercial banks.
Stasis wasn’t the only company to question Société Générale’s crypto venture, as other analysts also pointed out that the functionality of EURCV’s smart contract relies on a centralized registrar (likely one controlled by the bank) .
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