White Star Capital Digital Asset Fund - newsletter #116
Hong Kong Issues World's First Tokenised Green Bond
Hong Kong Issues World’s First Tokenised Green Bond
White Star Capital Digital Asset Fund - newsletter #116
The bonds were underwritten by four banks and priced at a yield of 4.05%.
The Hong Kong government has announced the successful sale of the world’s first tokenised green bonds highlighting the growing adoption of blockchain technology in the real world assets industry and its utility in the global drive towards sustainability.
Hong Kong’s central bank has been exploring green bond token issuance since at least 2021, and officially issued it last week under its Green Bond Program. It raised approximately HK$800m (US$102m) from the bond sale, which was settled through the HKMA CMU Central Moneymarkets Unit (CMU).
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) launched the government green bond program and leveraged the Goldman Sachs tokenisation platform (GSDAP) to tokenise the assets. The platform runs on a permissioned blockchain to settle security tokens representing the beneficial interests of bonds in a T+1 payment-vs-payment manner and cash tokens that represent claims on the HK dollar.
The tokenised cash is a claim against the HKMA, with future settlement events using the blockchain to record legal ownership. The bond custodians are the Bank of China HK) and HSBC, with the latter acting as the trustee, issuer agent, and transfer agent.
Tokenisation is the process of representing assets as digital tokens, a process which provides more transparency, efficiency, and accessibility in issuance and trading. In addition to lowering settlement costs and bringing more transparency to the bond market, this improves the efficiency of traditional settlement processes, which can rely on manual verification and paper-based documents.
The Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chain said the successful issuance of green bond tokens marks the government’s commitment to promoting financial market innovation.
“Our Policy Statement on Development of Virtual Assets in Hong Kong issued in October last year sets out that we actively embrace financial innovations related to Web3 and promote steady and prudent market development,” said Paul Chain, Financial Secretary. “The successful issuance of this tokenised green bond marks an important milestone as it demonstrates Hong Kong’s strengths in combining bond market, green and sustainable finance as well as fintech.”
🔦 White Star & Portfolio Spotlight
Introducing the INDEX Insiders Program for Tokenholders
Index Coop are creating new spaces for communication and engagement between the community and customers, to gather feedback and help inform new product strategy.
Introducing Superfluid Vesting: an open, liquid, and composable vesting solution.
Superfluid is proud to announce the launch of its easy-to-use, liquid, and composable vesting tool. Over the years, token vesting has played a significant role in the growth of the crypto industry.
🏦 Enterprises & Institutions
GQ Magazine to Launch Its First NFT Collection Linked to Real-World Rewards
Holders of the inaugural GQ3 collection will have access to a magazine subscription, merchandise and live events.
Sony Teams Up With Astar Network for Web3 Incubation Program
Sony Network Communications hopes the program will explore "how blockchain technology can solve various problems in their industry."
DraftKings Tees Up PGA Tour NFT Fantasy Golf Game
Reignmakers PGA Tour will launch in March, letting users battle for millions of dollars in prize money via Polygon NFT player cards.
Deutsche Bank Completes Asset Management Test With Memento Blockchain, Putting Domani's DEXTF Tokens Into Focus
The collaboration between Deutsche Bank and Memento Blockchain aims to address the challenges associated with launching and accessing digital asset funds.
Fetch.ai Partners with Bosch to Form a Foundation to Promote Industrial Applications Using Web3 Technology
The partnership aims to research, develop and harness Web3 technology for real-world use cases that will span across mobility, industrial, and consumer domains.
Ankr partners with Microsoft to offer enterprise node services
The partnership will offer low-latency blockchain connections for Web3 projects, enabling developers to focus time on scaling their applications.
Tencent Cloud Announces its Support for the Global Web3 Ecosystem Development and Introduces New Products for Web3 Builders
Tencent Cloud also unveiled the development roadmap of a full suite of blockchain API services and its brand new Tencent Cloud Metaverse-in-a-Box offerings, providing a strong technological foundation for Web3 builders while reinforcing its commitment to be the digital enabler for the Web3 industry.
Tezos signs up Google Cloud as a validator on its blockchain
Under this partnership, Google Cloud, the cloud division of the search engine giant Google, has agreed to serve as a validator on the proof-of-stake blockchain Tezos.
Mastercard to allow crypto payments in Web3 via USDC settlements
The Mastercard-Immersve partnership uses decentralized protocols to settle real-time cryptocurrency transactions on outlets accepting Mastercard payments online.
⚖️ Government & Regulation
Hong Kong Plans to Let Retail Sector Trade Larger Crypto Tokens Like Bitcoin
City pushes ahead toward a goal of becoming a crypto hub.
Hong Kong to Establish Task Force to Help Develop Crypto Hub
Hong Kong will set up a task force to provide recommendations on how it can achieve a recently adopted goal of becoming a crypto hub.
San Francisco Fed Hiring for Digital Currency Development
The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco is looking for software developers to help research and design a central bank digital currency (CBDC).
Japan Announces Launch of New CBDC Pilot This April
Japan joins a host of countries pushing ahead with plans for a digitized national currency, announcing a new pilot this spring.
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💰 Funding & Exits
Yield Guild Games raising $75 million venture fund to double down on web3 gaming
Yield Guild Games (YGG), a top web3 gaming guild, is entering the venture capital space, raising $75 million for its first fund.
YGG Continues Path to Decentralization with $13.8M Token Purchase Led by DWF Labs
Yield Guild Games (YGG) has generated US$13.8 million in a token purchase from the YGG treasury led by DWF Labs along with the participation of a16z Crypto, Galaxy Interactive, Sangha Capital Fund, Sanctor Capital, and David Lee to support the guild’s decentralization initiatives.
Binance-backed web3 gaming startup Unagi gets funding to expand fantasy sports platform
Web3 gaming company Unagi today announced a €4.7 million ($5 million) seed round of funding, as the French startup prepares to expand its NFT fantasy sports platform beyond football (“soccer”) and into the basketball realm.
Sending Labs secures $12.5 million to build 'web3 communcation stack'
Web3 communications project Sending Labs raised a $12.5 million seed round led by Insignia Venture Partners, MindWorks Capital and Signum Capital.
The NFT Gaming Company, Inc. Announces Pricing of $7 Million Initial Public Offering
The Company has received approval to list its Common Stock and on The Nasdaq Capital Market, with its Common Stock trading under the symbol “NFTG”, with trading expected to begin on February 15, 2023, subject to final approval by Nasdaq. The offering is expected to close on or about February 17, 2023, subject to satisfaction of customary closing conditions.
Crypto index platform Alongside raises $11M led by a16z
Investors in the round include Coinbase Ventures, Franklin Templeton Investments, Village Global and Not Boring Capital, as well as angel investors.
Blockchain security platform Ironblocks announces $7 million fundraise
This fundraise is co-led by Collider Ventures and Disruptive AI, with additional participants including ParaFi; Quantstamp; Samsung Next; Balaji Srinivasan, ex-CTO of Coinbase.
Superplastic, a creator of ‘synthetic’ influencers, raises $20M led by Amazon in deal to make TV shows and more
Janky and Guggimon, “synthetic” celebrities conceived in a studio and big on social platforms like TikTok and Instagram, where they exist as influencers with millions of followers, hyping up other brands, music acts and themselves, are soon coming to a streaming screen, and maybe a Whole Foods, near you.
Web3 tooling startup Nefta raises seed round at $32.5 million valuation
Nefta, a web3 infrastructure startup focused on gaming and entertainment sectors, raised $5 million in a seed funding round.
Polychain leads ZK chip startup Cysic's $6 million raise
Cysic aims to provide hardware acceleration solutions for ZK proof protocols. The startup already has 12 ecosystem partners including Scroll, Nil Foundation and Hyper Oracle.
Maven 11 and Blockchain Capital back tooling provider Modular Cloud
Blockchain tooling provider Modular Cloud has raised $1.7 million in pre-seed funding.
Crypto Investor HashKey Capital Raises $500 Million for Web3 Fund
HashKey's investments will focus on advancing blockchain initiatives in emerging markets.
🚀 Project Launches & Updates
Gaming titan Square Enix plots NFT game on Polygon
Square Enix, the maker of Final Fantasy, is set to debut its blockchain game Symbiogenesis as it wades further into the web3 waters.
Helium to Fully Migrate to Solana Blockchain by March 27
Decentralized wireless communication network Helium will entirely shift to the Solana blockchain by March 27.
NBA Top Shot Will Let Users Buy NFTs via Apple, Android Mobile Apps
Dapper Labs is pivoting to mobile—and working to help evolve Apple and Google’s approach towards NFTs and Web3.
🔥 Other Bits We're Excited About
Abu Dhabi Starts $2B Initiative to Back Web3 Startups
The Hub71 + Digital Assets ecosystem will also back companies focusing on blockchain technologies.
LinksDAO likely to put in ‘compelling offer’ to buy Scottish golf course
If the final tally remains in favor of the purchase, the LinksDAO acquisition committee is expected to pitch an offer of around $900,000 to purchase the Spey Bay Golf Club.