Swarm launches tradable on-chain stocks and bonds
Regulated blockchain platform Swarm today launched a world-first public investment offering for Apple, Tesla, and two US Treasury Bonds on-chain.
The fully asset-backed tokens are available on the Polygon blockchain and available to trade for both retail and institutional investors, with no minimum investment. Trading is available 24/7 and compliant under German regulation on Swarm’s permissioned DeFi platform.
It is the first service of its kind for investors looking to access real world assets using digital blockchain technology, while meeting full regulatory requirements. The tokens are 100% backed by real stocks and bond ETFs bought in traditional financial markets.
The token offering initially includes Apple and Tesla stock, iShares US treasury bond 0-1 year ETF and iShares US treasury bond 1-3 year ETF. Swarm says it will add further stocks and real world assets in the future.
“To date, there has not been an elegant and regulatory compliant solution to trade real world assets on-chain. We are seeing a ‘flight to quality’, as the FTX and Celsius crisis demonstrated that on-chain collateral is too highly correlated, regulation is critical, and decentralisation enhances transparency needed to build trust,” said Philipp Pieper, co-founder of Swarm.
“Swarm is the first entity to offer tokenised T-bills and stocks via a regulated and decentralised platform. As a regulated institution, we can offer real world assets on the blockchain and mobilise them unlike anyone else. We have started with stocks and bonds, and plan to extend to any asset that needs to be traded within a regulated environment.”
The four securities issued will be available to trade from today on Swarm’s permissioned DeFi platform and can be added to liquidity pools to generate yield or kept in investors’ own Web3 wallets.
The ISIN-based tokens benefit from the trust and stability of traditional markets plus the flexibility and greater access to global liquidity, at lower cost, on the blockchain. Stock and bond certificate tokens are integrated with traditional financial markets and can be redeemed for the underlying real world asset.
The tokens are issued by SwarmX GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of Swarm Markets GmbH, under a prospectus registered with the Financial Market Authority in Liechtenstein and passported into Germany. Secondary trading activities are regulated by Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin), and can be accessed on Swarm’s permissioned DeFi platform.