ClearToken, a UK market infrastructure group serving digital and traditional assets, has formed a strategic alliance with Consensys, a provider of protocols and institutional infrastructure, to help banks shift tokenised assets and cash onto infrastructure that runs continuously while keeping the legal certainty and controls wholesale markets expect.
The tie-up brings together two different forms of finality. Consensys supplies cryptographic finality, meaning a transaction written to a blockchain cannot be changed afterwards. ClearToken aims to deliver settlement finality, which gives legal assurance that a transfer of money or assets cannot be reversed.
According to the firms, trading activity now runs around the clock, yet post-trade systems still close. They argue that the ability to move a tokenised asset at any hour is of limited value unless clearing, settlement and safekeeping operate on the same continuous basis. By pairing infrastructure under development within the UK regulatory perimeter with established, scalable blockchain technology, the pair want to offer institutions a path to continuous markets without loosening control.
Under its Gate 2 approval in the Bank of England’s Digital Securities Sandbox, ClearToken CSD Limited is intended to allow eligible securities held across different banks to be tokenised and treated as one fungible instrument. Alongside ClearToken Depository Limited, the group’s FCA-authorised payment institution, the goal is to settle these instruments on a delivery-versus-payment basis, at any time, against cash in the form of fiat, tokenised deposits or stablecoins.
Consensys, for its part, links banks, brokers and asset managers across blockchain networks and financial market infrastructures in a way designed to be secure, private and compliant. ClearToken will rely on Consensys for scalable and resilient tokenisation technology, as well as for wallets and the client network needed to bring tokenised assets to institutional customers and partners.
ClearToken Group CEO Ben Santos-Stephens said, “Wholesale markets are embracing a diverse and growing ecosystem of networks and blockchains. Realising the full potential of that ecosystem depends on infrastructure that connects the banks, assets and ledgers already in use, and works across whichever networks institutions choose to distribute cash and assets to their clients. Consensys brings the technology and the institutional relationships to deliver that at scale. We are building the legal and clearing framework institutions need in order to rely on it.”
Consensys president David Cunningham said, “Financial institutions and market infrastructures are moving to always-on operations, with tokenisation at the core. Consensys is delivering interoperability for bank-issued tokens globally, across multiple payment schemes and financial market infrastructures. ClearToken is building a regulated route to clearing and settlement on a 24/7/365 basis, subject to clearing authorisation by the Bank of England. Together, this enables our clients to operate around the clock, opening up new business opportunities and reducing risk.”
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