Bradesco, one of the largest banks in Brazil and the third largest in all of Latam, has entered the world of cryptocurrencies by issuing its first tokenized credit notes. The operation, carried out in partnership with Bolsa OTC, tokenized almost $2 million in bank credit notes, which were also distributed by Bradesco.
Bradesco launches asset tokenization program
Bradesco, one of the largest banks in Brazil and Latin America, has entered the era of cryptocurrencies, being one of the first institutions to take advantage of blockchain technology in its operations in Brazil. The bank announced on January 13, 2023 that it had tokenized the first batch of bank credit notes, valued at nearly $2 million, as part of a pilot program to test the functionality of these technologies.
The operation, which according to Bradesco is the first to be supervised and approved by the country’s Central Bank, was carried out in partnership with Bolsa OTC and using a regulatory sandbox that allows financial institutions to carry out this type of testing using new technologies.
On the importance of this, Edson Moreto, executive director of Bradesco, fixed:
We continue to work and test the benefits of blockchain technology using its innovation ecosystem, Inovabra, so that new operations are available to our clients.
The asset tokenization business
Asset tokenization, the process of representing real-world assets on blockchain, is seen by some analysts as the next step in market technology. The technology could become a trend for trading in financial markets in the future, with a report issued in December by BCG and ADDX predicting that it will become a $16 trillion business opportunity by 2030.
Bradesco is the second bank in Brazil that is currently experimenting with tokenization and tokenized assets. The first to do so was Itaú Unibanco, which ran a series of tokenization tests issuing assets to bank employees and customers in July.
At that time, Itaú also announced the creation of its own tokenization unit, which would be focused on offering tokenization services to clients, allowing them to tokenize and sell these assets using a platform built and controlled by the bank.
According to local sources, more banks will also include tokenization as part of their service portfolio in the future. Many of these institutions were waiting for the approval of the recent cryptocurrency law, enacted in December, to have a clear picture of compliance issues to offer these tokenization services.
What do you think about the tokenization of assets and the test carried out by Bradesco in Brazil? Tell us in the comment section below.
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