JPMorgan, DBS Bank, SBI Complete Live Defi Trades on Public Blockchain

JPMorgan, DBS Bank, and SBI Digital Asset Holdings have completed their first lives trades on a public blockchain using decentralized finance (defi), tokenized deposits, and verifiable credentials under the supervision of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). Singapore’s central bank is planning two more pilots that involve Standard Chartered Bank, HSBC, and UOB.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Singapore’s central bank, announced Wednesday that “the first industry pilot under the MAS’ Project Guardian that explores potential decentralized finance (defi) applications in wholesale funding markets has completed its first live trades.”

The announcement details that for this pilot:

DBS Bank, JP Morgan, and SBI Digital Asset Holdings conducted foreign exchange and government bond transactions against liquidity pools comprising of tokenized Singapore Government Securities Bonds, Japanese Government Bonds, Japanese Yen (JPY), and Singapore Dollar (SGD).

The Singaporean central bank’s Project Guardian was announced in May. The regulator explained that since then, it “has engaged the financial industry to identify key areas for collaboration.”

The announcement further reveals:

MAS is launching two new industry pilots.

The first focuses on trade finance. “Standard Chartered Bank is leading an initiative to explore the issuance of tokens linked to trade finance assets,” the MAS outlined. “The project aims to digitize the trade distribution market, by transforming trade assets into transferable instruments that are more transparent and accessible to investors.”

The second pilot focuses on wealth management. “HSBC and UOB are working with Marketnode to enable native digital issuance of wealth management products, enhancing issuance efficiency and accessibility for investors,” the central bank described.

MAS Chief Fintech Officer Sopnendu Mohanty commented: “The live pilots led by industry participants demonstrate that with the appropriate guardrails in place, digital assets and decentralized finance have the potential to transform capital markets. This is a big step towards enabling more efficient and integrated global financial networks.” The official added:

Project Guardian has deepened MAS’ understanding of the digital asset ecosystem and has contributed to the development of Singapore’s digital asset strategy.

Following the MAS announcement, Tyrone Lobban, JPMorgan’s head of blockchain launch and Onyx Digital Assets, explained on Linkedin that the global investment bank has “executed its 1st LIVE trade on public blockchain using defi, tokenized deposits & verifiable credentials as part of Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)’s Project Guardian.”

He described: “This is a massive step forward towards a future where finance can take place in a compliant manner on public blockchain using public defi protocols. The beginnings of Institutional defi are here.” Lobban added:

This is the world’s first bank-issued tokenized deposit and the first trade by regulated Financial Institutions using W3C verifiable credentials for compliant access to defi on public blockchain.

“To achieve this we used a modified version of Aave on Polygon Technology blockchain to conduct a trade of tokenized SGD for JPY with SBI Holdings LLC. And we built a digital identity solution that combines identity proofs with trade instructions for ‘on chain’ verification, opening up a world of composable, pluggable identity,” the JPMorgan executive concluded.

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