World Bank Leads Secondary Market Phase of Bond-I Blockchain Bond

The World Bank and Commonwealth Bank have successfully enabled secondary market trading of a blockchain bond, the institutions confirmed in a press release on May 15.

The bond, known as bond-i, uses the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain and was the first in the world to leverage the technology fully when it debuted in August last year.

Now, a three-way partnership which also included market maker TD Securities delivered what the participants consider a similar first and a further metamorphosis for blockchain bonds.

“Enabling secondary trading recorded on the blockchain is a tremendous step forward towards enabling capital markets to leverage distributed ledger technologies for faster, more efficient, and more secure transactions,” the World Bank’s vice president and treasurer, Jingdong Hua, commented in the press release. He added:

“It speaks to the innovation and commitment of all our partners, including investors, that we were able to achieve this together.”

The achievement comes just weeks after French credit institution Societe Generale launched a €100 million euro ($112 million) bond on Ethereum, while the idea of blockchain bonds continues to extend beyond the banking sector.

As Cointelegraph reported, the governments of three developing economies themselves told the World Bank during one of its hosted events in April that they even wished to issue a bitcoin (BTC) bond.

“Blockchain has the potential to streamline processes for raising capital and trading securities, improve operational efficiencies, and enhance regulatory oversight,” Commonwealth Bank’s head of experimentation & commercialisation, Sophie Gilder, added.