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December 10, 2020 - One of Europe's oldest banks Bankhaus von der Heydt (BVDH), has partnered with Germany's major tokenization and digital asset custody technology provider, Bitbond to issue a Euro stablecoin (EURB) on the Stellar blockchain network.
BVDH, in operation since 1754, has largely focused on serving institutional clients in securitization-related transactions. According to the official announcement, after exploring ways to make their securitization business more efficient with DLT technology, Bitbond's white label tokenization technology emerged as the best way to do so. Stellar Development Foundation, the nonprofit organization supporting the development and growth of Stellar, facilitated the development of EURB and consulted with both Bitbond and BVDH regarding its technical integration. The new token is already available, representing the first stablecoin issued directly by a banking institution on Stellar and one of the first of its kind in the crypto market.
The EURB can be leveraged by BVDH's clients and third-party developers of financial applications to settle digital asset transfers on-chain. Having the new stablecoin listed live on the Stellar network, Bitbond will integrate it into the platform, built for BVDH to use the stablecoin for securitization, which includes mechanisms for burning and minting the token.
As for the Stellar environment, this would add a new on/off-ramp for EUR on the network, and users or enterprises, who aim to connect to EUR through Stellar, will be able to do so.
According to the publication, Bankhaus can function as a paying agent in-house to boost the issuance of new securitizations and engage new opportunities with banking clients who want to issue tokenized financial assets with full on-chain settlement.
The new EURB stablecoin is fully regulated and backed 1:1 by EUR.
Stellar Development Foundation CEO and Executive Director Denelle Dixon said that the last project between Bitbond and Bankhaus is proof that traditional banking and blockchain can work together, describing it as a venture of "bringing together one of the oldest banks in Europe with a FinTech startup to deliver exciting innovation in the digital currency space".
"Adding a high-quality, bank-issued euro asset to Stellar is meaningful for our users and builders on our network, powering a new wave of financial innovation, leveraged immediately by Stellar-based apps including DSTOQ, Vibrant, and Lobstr," he added.
Radoslav Albrecht, Bitbond founder and CEO commented: "Bitbond has been working with Stellar since 2019 when we issued the first-ever tokenized security recognized by Germany's Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin), the financial regulatory authority for Germany. With this delivery of stablecoin issuance technology, Bitbond has completed our digital assets tech suite which, up to now, included digital asset custody and tokenization technology."
Philipp Doppelhammer, BVDH managing director said: "We were drawn to Bitbond and Stellar due to the ease in which assets are issued and managed on the network. In our first use-case, SatoshiPay, a blockchain payments company and one of the earliest members of the Stellar network, will implement our EURB into its service DTransfer. DTransfer facilitates global cross-border money transfers for its business customers by exchanging different stablecoins and linking into banking systems around the world."
The move by BVDH is another sign that traditional banks are rapidly breaking new ground in the digital assets space. Earlier this week, Standard Chartered announced that it has teamed-up with Union Bank of The Philippines to issue a retail bond on a digital platform leveraging blockchain technology for bond tokenization. Speaking on that project, UnionBank Executive Vice President and CFO Jose Emmanuel Hilado commented: "The marriage of a digital order taking platform and backend infrastructure driven by tokens is the future of retail bonds".
