Leading Swiss bank UBS has launched a live pilot of a tokenized version of its Variable Capital Company (VCC) fund as part of Project Guardian, an initiative led by Singapore’s central bank.
In a press release, UBS Asset Management announced that the fund is part of a wider VCC umbrella designed to bring different types of real-world assets (RWA) to the blockchain. According to Thomas Kaegi, the head of UBS Asset Management for Singapore and Southeast Asia, the project is a milestone in understanding funds tokenization. Kaegi said:
“Through this exploratory initiative, we will work with traditional financial institutions and fintech providers to help understand how to improve market liquidity and market access for clients.”
UBS Asset Management launched the controlled pilot of the tokenized money market fund through the company’s in-house tokenization service called UBS Tokenize. Using a smart contract on Ethereum, the firm carried out various activities including redemptions and fund subscriptions.
The pilot is also a part of the company’s global distributed ledger technology (DLT) strategy which focuses on using private and public blockchains to enhance fund distribution and issuance.
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The new development realizes previous predictions on the tokenization of RWAs. In a panel discussion at the World Token Summit 2023, UAE government adviser Ellis Wang told Cointelegraph that tokenization of real-world assets gives various advantages like transparency and security, which are features embedded into blockchains. According to the executive, the tokenization of RWAs may catch on, as it presents significant opportunities for many industries.
Earlier this year, protocols focusing on RWAs became a hot topic as they outperformed other subsectors of decentralized finance (DeFi). On June 9, token gains of an RWA tokenization platform project surged by up to 32% year-to-date (YTD) at the time.
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