Amsterdam-headquartered ABN AMRO is the first bank in Europe to register a digital bond on the public blockchain using Fireblocks. The digital bond was issued to a select group of investors to raise funds on behalf of APOC, an ABN AMRO commercial client in the aerospace industry.
ABN AMRO’s bond issuance sets an innovative precedent in bringing more real world use cases of blockchain technology to traditional financial markets. This initiative showcases the potential of new financing streams for commercial companies across all industries.
ABN AMRO collaborated with Fireblocks and Bitbond on the issuance of APOC’s tokenized bond offering.
- The smart contract was created on the Stellar blockchain, using Bitbond’s technology
- ABN AMRO then utilized Fireblocks’ end-to-end tokenization platform to securely mint/burn, and custody the token, as well as to simplify digital asset treasury management processes
- Ownership of the bonds was recorded on the blockchain in the form of tokens that investors acquired after they had paid for the bond.
“This updated digital solution for providing our medium-sized and larger commercial clients with leveraged financing fills a gap between traditional bonds and crowdfunding. Thanks to the blockchain, it’s highly efficient and very client-friendly,” said Edwin van Bommel, chief strategy and innovation officer at ABN AMRO, in a statement.
“As the issuer and sole arranger of its first digital bond, ABN AMRO is setting a new bar for how traditional banks can better serve commercial clients using blockchain technology. Fireblocks is proud to support ABN AMRO with secure, highly-scalable foundational technology for the issuance of digital bonds,” said Michael Shaulov, CEO and co-founder at Fireblocks, in a statement.
It’s not just banks who have stepped up their adoption of blockchain technology – in October 2022, the Israel Ministry of Finance and Tel Aviv Stock Exchange issued a first-of-its-kind digital bond with Fireblocks.