Two cornerstones of the German financial landscape, Deutsche Borse and Commerzbank, are working together to create a blockchain-based marketplace for real estate and art.
Announced Thursday, Deutsche Borse and Commerzbank are partnering with fintech firm 360X to build the digital asset marketplace with the first reference transaction (minimum viable product) for each tokenized asset class planned for later this year, the companies said.
Blockchains and tokenization promise untold liquidity for assets like real estate and art, which is what these large financial firms are aiming for here.
Germany is becoming a powerful contender in the digital asset race, with its regulator BaFIN inviting banks and startups to apply for special licenses to hold cryptocurrency for interested clients. Both Deutsche Borse and Commerzbank have been working on blockchain pilots of various flavors for the last several years.
“I am convinced that Deutsche Borse has to venture into new asset classes,” said Theodor Weimer, CEO of Deutsche Borse AG in a statement. “In the future, we will see a broad tokenization and digitisation of assets that are not tradable today. 360X is the new innovative platform for serial marketplace creation that we are building with our partners.”
Commerzbank has many years of experience with DLT technology, said the bank’s CEO Manfred Knof, citing pilot transactions in the areas of payments, securities and trade finance, as well as strategic partnerships with technology and internet companies.
“We take real assets to digital marketplaces. With our and Deutsche Borse’s investment in 360X we see the potential to actively shape one of these digital asset ecosystems of the future,” Knof said in a statement.
