Australian bank joins Project Guardian to explore RWA tokenization

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group — one of Australia’s “Big Four” banks — has joined Singapore’s Project Guardian to explore the potential benefits of real-world asset tokenization in financial markets.

ANZ will partner with blockchain oracle firm Chainlink Labs and Singapore investment firm ADDX to test how RWAs like commercial papers can interoperate between blockchains, ANZ revealed in a Sept. 30 statement.

Project Guardian was launched in 2022 by the Monetary Authority of Singapore as a collaborative initiative between policymakers and the financial industry to enhance liquidity and the efficiency of financial markets through RWA tokenization. 

ANZ’s banking services lead Nigel Dobson said the bank is interested in exploring how it can more freely move its Australian dollar-backed A$DC stablecoin between blockchains.

ANZ will use Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol to achieve this, Chainlink’s community liaison Zach Rynes said.

Dobson noted that tokenized asset markets are currently “highly fragmented” as most RWAs can’t move freely between blockchains without an interoperability protocol like Chainlink’s CCIP.

This can slow adoption and make the integration process for financial institutions “complex,” Dobson added.

ANZ will receive on-the-ground support from Project Guardian as it has a Singapore office.

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S&P Global, Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan’s blockchain platform Onyx previously participated in Project Guardian’s pilot programs, while DBS Bank, SBI Digital Asset Holdings and WisdomTree have also been involved. 

Project Guardian’s policymaker group includes government bodies from the United Kingdom, Japan, Singapore, Switzerland and France, as well as the International Monetary Fund.

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