London, New York, Singapore, February 13, 2024 - Global Digital Finance (GDF), the
global members association and platform for open innovation in digital assets in financial
services, in partnership with members Archax and Ownera, announce the launch of the new
GDF Tokenization Forum.
The Tokenization Forum is a forum open to global digital asset innovators and will convene
industry experts from leading FinTechs and financial institutions to discuss the emerging trends
and insights in the tokenization of real-world assets (RWA) and the evolving tokenization
strategies across different asset classes and markets in financial services.
The first Tokenization Forum will kick-off on 22nd February at 16.00 GMT | 11.00 EST |
08.00 PST and run bi-monthly (every two months) until the end of the year, with an APAC
session taking place every 3rd forum.
Larry Fink, the CEO of Blackrock recently said that tokens are the “next generation for
markets,” and estimates the tokenization of the RWA market will unlock $16 trillion of assets
for greater access to investment and trading.
The Forum, co-chaired by Archax’s Head of Market Development, Breige Tinnelly, and
Ownera’s Head of Business Development, Anthony Woolley, will deliver sessions
purposefully curated to drive thought leadership and development of tokenization across asset
classes and markets, and serve as a catalyst to mobilize participants to form working groups to
drive actionable outcomes such as whitepapers, reports, and standards to help accelerate the
global adoption of digital assets.
Under the governance of GDF, Ownera led the development of the open interoperability
protocol called FinP2P to solve the problem of tokenization interoperability and distribution.
By deploying FinP2P routers, institutions can enable instant trading and settlement across any
asset class ledger and digital payment rail. For example, J.P. Morgan, HQLAx, Ownera and
Wematch.live are in the process of launching an intra-day Repo platform that executes
delivery-versus-payment (DvP) repo transactions across two different distributed ledger
technology (DLT) platforms at HQLAX and J.P. Morgan using FinP2P routers.
Archax, the FCA regulated digital asset exchange, broker and custodian, is focused on
providing the products and services needed to bring the benefits of the crypto and digital asset
space to traditional professionals and institutions. It is currently working with 10 leading asset
managers and 7 blue-chip banks on tokenized collateral transfer and fund tokenization projects
which emphasize the industry move to using blockchain technology for handling RWAs in a
streamlined and more efficient manner. An example of this is the tokenized money market fund
(MMF) that it launched with partner and strategic investor abrdn last year – allowing people to
hold assets in a yield generating instrument in digital form, as an alternative to cash or
stablecoins. Furthermore, Archax has announced plans to launch crypto trading pairs against
tokenized MMFs. This means that professional clients will be able to hold assets in regulated
MMFs earning a yield, and then trade directly against leading unregulated cryptocurrencies,
without the need to convert into another asset, like fiat, first.
Commenting on the new GDF Tokenization Forum, Anthony Woolley says, “We see many
institutional tokenization projects now coming to production but unless the industry works
together to make them interoperate, they risk standing as islands with limited scale and
liquidity. The Tokenization Forum will be a powerful way for the industry to convene to tackle
problems such as this and deliver the benefits of tokenization to investors around the world.”
Commenting on the new GDF Tokenization Forum, Breige Tinnelly says, “The establishment
of the GDF Tokenization Forum marks a significant step forward in bringing together the
brightest minds and leading innovators in the digital asset space. By fostering collaboration
and dialogue among key players across the industry, we aim to address the challenges of scaling
and adopting tokenization, drive interoperability, and harness the potential of digital assets.
Our goal is to create a unified approach that accelerates the adoption and integration of
tokenized assets into the global financial ecosystem, ensuring they are accessible, efficient, and
secure for all participants.
Lawrence Wintermeyer, Executive Co-Chair of GDF says, “The new Tokenization Forum is
the next evolution of the GDF member-led community and is open to all global innovators in
the digital assets space. We are grateful for the leadership of our members Archax and Ownera,
two firms that have moved digital assets from “POC to Production” and have track records in
delivering to financial partners and markets. We look forward to welcoming the world’s
leading digital assets innovators to this new and timely Forum.”
For further information about the Forum, or to register to attend the first session on on 22nd
February at 16.00 GMT | 11.00 EST | 08.00 PST, contact the Forum Secretariat, Madeleine
Boys at madeleine@gdf.io.
About Archax
Archax is the first ever digital securities exchange regulated by the FCA in London. Targeted
at institutions, Archax also has its FCA brokerage, custody and cryptoasset permissions.
Founded by experts from traditional capital markets and backed by an accomplished advisory
board, Archax offers a credible bridge between the blockchain world and the existing
investment space. The Archax team is used to working in highly regulated markets and has a
deep understanding of the blockchain landscape and tokenization too – as well as a vision of
how to evolve them and open up digital assets to institutions in a transparent manner.
About Ownera
Ownera is a technology company delivering interoperability solutions to the world of tokenized
assets. The company led the creation of the open peer-to-peer protocol called FinP2P and
delivers FinP2P based network routers and digital securities solutions to the regulated financial
services industry. Ownera’s FinP2P routers enable global distribution and liquidity by
connecting tokenized assets distributed by sell-side institutions to buy-side demand. The
routers facilitate the negotiation and settlement of transactions between the counterparties and
their various regulated service providers including custodians, brokers, transfer agents, digital
cash providers and lenders.
Ownera completed its Series A investment round in 2022 and its strategic investors include
J.P. Morgan, U.S. Bancorp, LRC Group, Draper Goren Holm, tokentus Investment AG,
Accomplice Blockchain, Polymorphic Capital, The Ropart Group and Archax.
For more information, go to www.ownera.io
About GDF
Global Digital Finance (GDF) is a global non-profit association of member firms offering an
open innovation platform for advocating and accelerating the adoption of best practices for
digital assets.
GDF’s mission is to “To promote and underpin the greater adoption of market standards for
the use of crypto and digital assets, through the development of best practices and governance
standards in a shared engagement forum with industry, policymakers, and regulators.”
For more information about GDF and the collaboration with DAW contact: madeleine@gdf.io
Contacts
Anthony Woolley, Ownera: anthony.woolley@ownera.io
Madeleine Boys, GDF: madeleine@gdf.io
Simon Barnby, Archax: simon@archax.com
