Slovenia has made history by issuing the Eurozone’s first digital government bond, using the Canton blockchain platform for on-chain settlement.
Slovenia has issued the eurozone’s first digital government bond in an on-chain transaction facilitated by French banking giant BNP Paribas and using the Banque de France’s tokenized cash solution.
In a press release on Friday, BNP Paribas said the issuance is part of the European Central Bank’s money settlement experiment program. The digital bond from Slovenia was issued using BNP Paribas’ Neobonds platform, which operates on the Canton blockchain.
“BNP Paribas is committed to contributing to the Eurosystem-led large-scale digital settlement solutions that will make bond settlement more efficient and secure,” Frederic Zorzi, global head of primary markets at BNP Paribas CIB, said in the press release.
BNP Paribas says Neobonds has established legal ownership of digital bonds, allowing network participants to manage the operational framework for issuing and trading bonds on secondary markets. The bond, with a nominal value of €30 million, has a coupon of 3.65% and matures on November 25.
Canton was launched in 2021 by financial technology company Digital Asset in an effort to create a privacy-based interoperable blockchain network designed to provide a decentralized infrastructure for institutional clients. In addition to BNP Paribas, the list of network participants also includes Deloitte, Cboe Global Markets, Goldman Sachs and Microsoft.
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