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Securitize, a blockchain firm specializing in the tokenization of real-world assets, has started issuing tokenized securities in Europe that represent equity in the Spanish real estate investment trust Mancipi Partners.

The shares will be tokenized on the Avalanche blockchain, and secondary trading is set to begin in September. 

The rollout comes nearly a month after Spain’s General Secretariat of the Treasury and International Finance approved the firm to deploy digital asset securities to a small number of businesses and investors under supervised “sandbox” conditions

Once the sandbox period expires after around six months and the firm gets the go-ahead from the European Union Pilot Regime, Securitize plans to issue, manage and trade tokenized securities in Spain and the EU more broadly. 

European businesses

“Securitize is now the first firm to be able to issue and trade tokenized securities in both the U.S. and Europe, and is the first firm to do so under the EU’s new pilot regime for digital assets,” Barcelona-born Securitize co-founder Carlos Domingo said in a statement. “European businesses will be a major beneficiary of this innovation, giving businesses a new way to raise capital through primary capital raises, and obtain potential tax benefits and liquidity through secondary trading.”

In May, Securitize partnered with the asset manager Hamilton Lane to bolster investor exposure to tokenized security offerings.

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

The firm started issuing tokens representing equity in a Spanish real estate investment trust under Spain’s new digital asset supervision.

Rocket Pool, a decentralized Ethereum-based staking service, experienced its largest daily redemption of its rocketpool ether (rETH) token this week, with one trader redeeming $12.3 million worth of the token before sending it to Binance.

The Electronic Trade Documents Act, set to take effect later this year, could make use of blockchain tech to improve security and reduce costs.

MovEx had violated the lockup by initiating three transactions of 625K SUI to three unique wallets, sparking concerns around these excess tokens in the open market.

Bitcoin remained above $29,000 despite the U.S. Federal Reserve’s recent rate hike — stimulated by better-than-expected inflation data — an analyst claimed.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization rose 1.0% to $29,503 at 6:45 a.m. ET. The digital asset has stayed within a narrow range between around $29,000 and $31,500 for over a month. 

Post the Federal Open Market Committee’s announcement, Bitcoin and major altcoins traded flat. The decision to raise rates to between 5.25% and 5.50% resulted in a subdued crypto market performance. The total cryptocurrency market cap stands at $1.24 trillion — up by 1.6% in the last 24 hours — according to CoinGecko.

Inflation falls below expectations

Fed officials announced inflation data is below expectations after June’s yearly CPI declined to 3%.

Chief economist at BTCM Youwei Yang said this makes a September interest rate hike much less probable and that overall rate hikes may become less aggressive. “However, the Fed is cautious enough and still kept the door open for some possible additional interest rate hikes, aiming to maintain the current high rate for a longer period, stating that future decisions will highly depend on economic data,” he told The Block

Yang sees the inflation reading as encouraging in the short term and “already stimulating emerging assets, including crypto.”

However, he argued the impact of Fed rate decisions on the crypto market has decayed incrementally. “The market is now looking for new exciting or worrying indicators to move, and I suspect earnings, regulations, or banking credit liquidity might be the next movers,” he added.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell said at a press conference following the FOMC meeting that further rate hikes could come in September if warranted. “I would also say it’s possible that we would choose to hold steady at that meeting. We’re going to be making careful assessments, as I said, meeting by meeting,” he said.

Co-founder of Sei Labs Jeff Feng said risk-on assets like cryptocurrencies could face increased volatility after more monetary tightening measures from the U.S. Central Bank. “Despite the market having largely priced in these interest hikes, this does not negate the possibility of further turbulence,” he told The Block.

Feng said the fundamental drivers of cryptocurrency demand remain in place, “decentralization, transparency, and the potential for risk-adjusted growth,” adding that the market should brace itself for increased short-term volatility — but the long-term outlook for the cryptocurrency market continues to be strong.

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Animoca Brands, the Hong Kong-based web3 investment firm, today announced a strategic partnership with hi, a startup that bills itself as a web3 super app.

As part of the deal, Animoca said it will invest $30 million in hi — though it added that definitive terms are yet to be agreed.

Hi, which holds digital assets licenses in Lithuania and Italy, currently offers both exchange and digital banking-like services for crypto and fiat. Close to 3.5 million people have signed up to the service, hi claimed in today’s announcement.

Hi last year announced a debit card that could be customized with avatars in the form of NFTs — the first of which are due to ship this quarter. Animoca said in today’s announcement that it reckoned its hundreds of portfolio companies could benefit from the feature.

Proof-of-personhood

The pair of web3 firms will also work together to arm developers with what they call a “unique-human authentication mechanism,” using hi’s proof-of-human identity tools. The plan comes just days after Worldcoin, the proof-of-personhood project co-created by Sam Altman, finally launched its token.

Yat Siu, co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands, said in a statement, “As part of this partnership we will collaborate with hi on its continued development of the hi App and the hi Protocol to drive positive impact for the broader Web3 ecosystem.”

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

In order to perform KYC on its users, hi will soon utilize a Proof of Human Identity solution that helps prevent bots from transacting on its layer 2 network.

Canada’s financial regulator proposed strict new guidelines for bank and insurance sector crypto-asset exposure. 

The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institution’s guidelines advise banks and insurers on capital and liquidity risks when dealing with crypto-assets. The OSFI said the new rules “reflect an evolving risk environment and international developments.”

The regulatory guidelines come in two parts — one for banks, the other for insurers. “Today, OSFI announced two draft guidelines, one for federally regulated deposit-taking institutions and another for insurers, on the regulatory capital treatment of crypto-asset exposures,” the regulator said.

Crypto exposure limits and risk weighting

The proposal said crypto-assets should be categorized into two broad groups — one category for tokenized traditional assets and stablecoins, and the other for unbacked crypto assets. The guidelines said banks should have an exposure limit of no more than 1% for unbacked crypto assets.

It gave an example of how banks should consider the risk weighting of tokenized and traditional assets. “A tokenized corporate bond held in the banking book will be subject to the same risk weight as the non-tokenized corporate bond held in the banking book,” the guidelines state. However it underlines that “a tokenized asset may have different market liquidity characteristics than the traditional, non-tokenized, asset.”

The speed with which creditors could take possession of crypto-asset collateral was addressed. Banks are advised to assess whether crypto-asset collateral can be liquidated in a way that meets legal certainty requirements. 

Update on Basel Committee standards

The OSFI said it drafted the detailed guidance on crypto-asset exposure as an update to proposals released by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision in December 2022. “They have been updated to reflect the Canadian context and the industry for which the guideline has been developed, i.e. banking or insurance,” the OSFI wrote.

“The banking guideline reflects the December 2022 BCBS banking standard and the insurance guideline incorporate the relevant parts of the BCBS standard with adjustments to meet the specific context of the insurance industry,” the report added.

After the OSFI consultation period ends on September 20, the guidelines will come into effect in Q1 of 2025.

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.