Ryan McCall, Zerocap CEO, stated that there is a strong value proposition that can be used to tokenize any asset and connect it into the ASX ecosystem. After a successful proof of concept trial by Zerocap, an online asset investment platform, companies on the Australian Securities Exchange could trade tokenized bonds and equities.
Zerocap, a Melbourne-based digital asset platform, told Cointelegraph that it had used Synfini to connect its custody infrastructure onto the platform. This, in part of a trial program that allowed for trading and clearing Ethereum-based tokenized assets.
This trial is part ASX’s distributed leger technology (DLT),-based settlement project Synfini, which was launched in November. Clients have access to ASX’s DLT infrastructure and data hosting, as well as ledger services. This allows them to create blockchain applications from it.
Ryan McCall, Zerocap’s co-founder, and CEO, stated that the event occurred last year. He said that it “got a lot of attention” from institutions, especially companies that are looking at ways to tokenize bonds, funds, or carbon credits.
“Thinking beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum, the tokenization property, bonds, equities and private equity and any other crypto assets is a strong value proposition. We can effectively tokenize any asset and connect it into the ASX ecosystem.”
McCall stated that companies that deal with “opaque or difficult to access markets”, such as bonds or carbon credits, are looking for ways to reduce costs, speed up issuance and increase investor access through tokenized offerings.
Questioned on whether the ASX would be able to offer crypto trading via Synfini, McCall stated “yes” but that he hasn’t seen any indicators of interest in this field, as the ASX and others are primarily focused on tokenizing traditional/real-world assets.
It is important to note that Synfini is an independent initiative of ASX’s Blockchain-based CHESS system replacement. This has not been implemented yet after years of technical difficulties.
McCall suggested that Zerocap might be planning to launch asset tokenization services via Synfini to institutions soon, having just passed the legal approval requirements.
“Since then, we have been going through certification to get into the production environment. This is, as you can probably see, for any type of enterprise software but definitely for an exchange. It’s a very strict process. We have just passed the production certification. He said, “So getting ready to deploy it now.”
McCall pointed out that the ASX is a trusted source for hosting digital asset trading and this would likely reduce institutional concern about counterparty risk in relation to the crypto sector.
These risks are a result of several large crypto companies having liquidity problems or going bankrupt, such as Celsius, Voyager digital, and Three Arrows Capital.
“So, counterparty risk, you see, credit risk in particular, I guess, is the most talked about topic in crypto right now with the 3AC catastrophe. That just shows the potential use of what the ASX is trying here, I believe.
He said, “You know, looking at the ecosystem and investor protections, and all the other things it offers, there’s definitely an need for something similar in digital assets.”
The Zerocap CEO suggested that Synfini would likely be used by many firms because it is user-friendly and eliminates many variables for businesses.
He said that if a custodian, a fund manager, or any other application developer wishes to build a blockchain app, they can do it on the Synfini platform without really having to worry about managing any infrastructure.
Zerocap was recently involved in a tokenized carbon credit transaction. The firm provided market-making and liquidity services for exchanges between major Australian family offices Victor Smorgon Group, and BetaCarbon (a blockchain-based carbon trading platform).
A$DC was used to facilitate the deal. This fully AUD collateralized, stablecoin was developed by ANZ (big four bank) in Australia.
