Rehan Ahmed’s Post

Euroclear invests in Singapore-based digital market infrastructure Marketnode 🎉🎉🎉 By joining forces with Marketnode and its shareholders, Euroclear aims to participate in the setup of a strategic market infrastructure in Asia-Pacific designed to simplify the management of funds flows and reduce settlement times by using new technology. The investment aligns with Euroclear’s global funds strategy and strengthens its one-stop-shop fund offering - Euroclear FundsPlace® - in the APAC region. Rehan Ahmed, CEO of Marketnode, said: “We are excited to welcome Euroclear as a strategic investor. Euroclear’s global connectivity, operational expertise, and market-leading position as a trusted financial market infrastructure will catalyse the growth of Marketnode’s platforms, especially Fundnode. It is also our privilege to be Euroclear’s first strategic investment in Asia, reflecting strong endorsement of our trajectory and achievements to date. We look forward to building the next generation of financial market infrastructure out of Asia, working together with Euroclear, HSBC, Temasek and our clients to realise our mission and vision.” 👉 Full press release: https://lnkd.in/gBtyz4Dg Euroclear HSBC SGX Group Temasek Rehan Ahmed Aaron Seabrook Pradyumna Agrawal Kevin LIM John O'Neill Alex Saunders Beng Hong LEE Roderick Martin Philippe Laurensy Philippe Verriest Luc V. Alexander Sulaimani Vincent Clause

💡 MAS Accelerates Asset Tokenization with Project Guardian: Building Future-Ready Financial Markets In a move to foster tokenization in finance, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) unveiled new initiatives under Project Guardian, aimed at advancing asset tokenization and building a more interconnected global financial ecosystem. Here’s what’s new: 🔗 Forming Commercial Networks: MAS collaborates with over 40 institutions to build networks that deepen liquidity for tokenized assets across multiple markets and currencies. 🌐 Developing Market Infrastructures: Through the Global Layer One (GL1) platform, MAS supports an ecosystem of cross-border compatible infrastructures, enabling seamless transactions. 📜 Establishing Frameworks: With the launch of frameworks like the Guardian Fixed Income and Funds Frameworks, MAS provides industry standards to implement and expand tokenization. MAS’s leadership and Project Guardian’s network aim to standardize and scale tokenized markets across sectors, paving the way for innovation and liquidity in global finance. This ecosystem promises a future of efficient, secure, and globally connected digital asset transactions. https://lnkd.in/d_ucWZAZ #web3 #digitalassets

Shared my views with WatersTechnology.com on Deutsche Bank's efforts to develop standardised protocols for asset tokenisation. Benjamin Quinlan, CEO of Quinlan & Associates, says from various project engagements and discussions with asset managers, asset tokenisation has the potential to address numerous pain points, leveraging DLT’s programmability, atomic settlement, and fractionalisation characteristics. However, a challenge that firms running DLT initiatives may face is the lack of standardisation. “Many financial institutions have conducted pilots and proofs-of-concept for digital asset exploration, which yielded a variety of network types and data formats. Private-sector players are building interoperability solutions to solve for the lack of standardisation, but they still cite discrepancies in data and communication protocols as major implementation obstacles,” Quinlan says. Firms also face high integration costs when incorporating DLT into their existing technology stack. Legacy systems, such as EMSs, will need “intensive customisation” and, therefore, significant capital to integrate with on-chain capabilities. Another challenge has to do with throughput and scalability. Quinlan says that compared to traditional trading systems, DLT networks support lower throughput. “For permissionless systems, in particular, throughput is throttled without the use of solutions like ZK-proofs (zero-knowledge proofs) and Layer 2 chains. Even in permissioned systems, many industry players comment that DLT rails may not be suitable to support use cases like high-frequency trading,” he says. That said, Quinlan believes that Singapore’s efforts with Project Guardian encourage the financial industry to explore DLT and invest in digital assets, and it is a “very clear sign” that the regulator sees a role for the still-emerging technology in the financial system. The lack of regulatory clarity on tokenised assets and systems remains a common concern in the industry. For example, Quinlan says the balance sheet treatment of digital assets remains uncertain and most regulators are still in the midst of developing clear and comprehensive guidance for regulated entities to follow DLT adoption. While it is an inevitable part of DLT adoption, as the technology is still in its nascent stages and supporting regulations tend to be more “reactive” than “proactive”, Quinlan says the market faces a “chicken-and-egg” dilemma: solutions tend to thrive in well-regulated environments … but well-regulated environments are derived from extensive testing of solutions. “We see regulators generally adopting a risk-based, ‘same risk, same regulation,’ approach. In other words, change in the underlying technology (in this case, DLT) does not change the inherent risks of financial assets and activities,” he says. https://lnkd.in/gEnRmrSy #tokenisation #dlt #blockchain

HSBC leads Series A for Singapore’s Marketnode to disrupt the digital market infrastructure #Marketnode, a pioneering #fintech infrastructure operator based in Singapore, has successfully closed its Series A investment round. The funding was led by #HSBC, with additional contributions from existing shareholder Temasek. Marketnode specializes in developing cutting-edge digital market infrastructure for various financial assets. Since its inception in 2020, the company has been at the forefront of innovation, collaborating with HSBC on multiple projects, including MAS’s Project Guardian initiative, the fund settlement infrastructure Fundnode, and various digital bond projects. The new funding will enable Marketnode to scale its platforms and advance its mission of developing a multi-asset ecosystem, starting in the Asia-Pacific region. This strategic investment highlights the commitment of both Marketnode and HSBC to building a robust and secure digital asset infrastructure. As part of this investment, John O'Neill, Global Head of Digital Asset Strategy at HSBC, will join Marketnode’s Board of Directors. Ian Glasner, Group Head of Innovation, Ventures, and Digital Partnerships at HSBC, emphasized the strategic importance of the investment, stating, “Our investment in Marketnode showcases our joint commitment to building a robust multi-asset digital infrastructure across our markets, helping our customers enter the world of digital assets safely and securely. We are excited to embark on the next chapter of our collaboration to drive innovation in the industry.” Rehan Ahmed, President of Marketnode, expressed gratitude for HSBC’s involvement, adding, “Marketnode is proud to have HSBC as the lead strategic investor in our Series A round. HSBC’s support represents the natural extension of our collaboration across multiple asset classes since Marketnode’s inception. The marriage of Marketnode’s FMI operational expertise and HSBC’s market-leading global platform represents a unique opportunity to shape the next generation of trusted and neutral market infrastructure. We continue to welcome other industry partners to join us in rethinking financial markets out of Asia-Pacific.” Want to stay up to date with the market? Here my newsletter: - Linkedin: https://t.ly/s541W   - Substack: https://lnkd.in/dzfGJzmW

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced plans to support the commercialisation of asset tokenisation.  MAS will expand activities under The Global Layer One (GL1) Initiative to design an open digital infrastructure of international standards.  This will align governance, risk management controls, and settlement arrangements for cross-border transactions.  MAS aims to form commercial networks to deepen liquidity in tokenised assets through Project Guardian.  This will facilitate seamless transactions of tokenised assets across networks.  Two industry frameworks, the Guardian Fixed Income Framework (GFIF) and the Guardian Funds Framework (GFF), have been published to guide the implementation of tokenisation in debt capital markets and funds.  MAS will facilitate access to common settlement assets, including the Singapore dollar wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC), for market testing purposes.  This initiative will improve fundraising, secondary trading, asset servicing, and settlement of tokenised assets.  It will also support the development of digital infrastructure and common standards to enable industry-wide adoption of tokenisation. Based on this, I posit MAS could potentially accept tokenised carbon credits.  MAS has already shown interest in supporting innovative financial solutions, including the commercialisation of asset tokenisation.  MAS has launched the Transition Credits Coalition to develop a new class of carbon credits aimed at accelerating the closure of coal-fired power plants.  Tokenised carbon credits align with MAS’s goal of promoting sustainable finance and supporting the transition to a low-carbon economy.  Tokenisation improves the efficiency of carbon markets by simplifying transactions and increasing liquidity.  By facilitating the trading of tokenised carbon credits, MAS helps achieve global climate goals, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting renewable energy. MAS has launched the Transition Credits Coalition, which includes financial institutions, carbon exchanges, standard setters, and NGOs.  This coalition aims to develop a new class of carbon credits to accelerate the closure of coal-fired power plants.  MAS has initiated pilot projects to test the use of high-integrity transition credits in transactions for the early retirement of coal-fired power plants.  These credits are generated by retiring a coal plant early and replacing it with clean energy sources.  This is a good base to expand to general trading of fungible compliance carbon credits. Terence Nunis Terence K. J. Nunis, Consultant President, Red Sycamore Global

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced plans to support the commercialisation of asset tokenisation.  MAS will expand activities under The Global Layer One (GL1) Initiative to design an open digital infrastructure of international standards.  This will align governance, risk management controls, and settlement arrangements for cross-border transactions.  MAS aims to form commercial networks to deepen liquidity in tokenised assets through Project Guardian.  This will facilitate seamless transactions of tokenised assets across networks.  Two industry frameworks, the Guardian Fixed Income Framework (GFIF) and the Guardian Funds Framework (GFF), have been published to guide the implementation of tokenisation in debt capital markets and funds.  MAS will facilitate access to common settlement assets, including the Singapore dollar wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC), for market testing purposes.  This initiative will improve fundraising, secondary trading, asset servicing, and settlement of tokenised assets.  It will also support the development of digital infrastructure and common standards to enable industry-wide adoption of tokenisation. Based on this, I posit MAS could potentially accept tokenised carbon credits.  MAS has already shown interest in supporting innovative financial solutions, including the commercialisation of asset tokenisation.  MAS has launched the Transition Credits Coalition to develop a new class of carbon credits aimed at accelerating the closure of coal-fired power plants.  Tokenised carbon credits align with MAS’s goal of promoting sustainable finance and supporting the transition to a low-carbon economy.  Tokenisation improves the efficiency of carbon markets by simplifying transactions and increasing liquidity.  By facilitating the trading of tokenised carbon credits, MAS helps achieve global climate goals, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting renewable energy. MAS has launched the Transition Credits Coalition, which includes financial institutions, carbon exchanges, standard setters, and NGOs.  This coalition aims to develop a new class of carbon credits to accelerate the closure of coal-fired power plants.  MAS has initiated pilot projects to test the use of high-integrity transition credits in transactions for the early retirement of coal-fired power plants.  These credits are generated by retiring a coal plant early and replacing it with clean energy sources.  This is a good base to expand to general trading of fungible compliance carbon credits. Terence Nunis Terence K. J. Nunis, Consultant President, Red Sycamore Global

The answer is ‘yes’, writes Pontoro’s managing director of private markets products, especially if the objective is to reap maximum benefits when combining it with digital asset #technology. #Infratech #LPs #Advisors

WealthKernel Expands into Europe with a Spanish Licence Read more: https://lnkd.in/eaV54B8v #WealthKernel #EuropeanExpansion #SpanishLicence #FintechGrowth #InvestmentServices #WealthManagement #FintechInnovation #FinanceExpansion #finance #fintech #FinancialIT

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP: Developing the infrastructure of the future for digital assets An eventful 12 months have seen the industry make great strides in its efforts to create a regulated digital asset ecosystem for traditional market participants. Here, Jack Pouderoyen, who leads digital asset innovation for Swift, discusses the progress being made in scaling the tokenised securities market, and how Swift is working with its community to facilitate interoperability and turn these ambitions into reality.