B3 Takes First Steps to Tokenize Stocks
B3, Brazil’s stock exchange, is preparing to adopt tokenization technologies for the second half of this year.
During tokenization day, an event promoted by the same company to discuss asset digitization, B3’s executives revealed that this initiative was already taking shape and that in its first stages it would not involve direct trading.
Rodrigo Nardoni, Vice President of Technology at B3, stressed that the objective was to represent all stocks in a blockchain ecosystem. “What we will have is a faithful replica of the traditional depository database on a blockchain, represented in the form of tokens. We are not talking, at this initial stage, about trading these tokens on the market,” Nardoni declared.
The project also includes the possible use of stablecoins as part of the settlement process integrated into the traditional financial system, meaning assets could be settled onchain with stablecoin-based disbursements.
“The rise of stablecoins could open up space for stock settlements using digital currencies in more direct and atomic models. I’m not saying this will necessarily happen, but we need to be prepared for this possibility,” Nardoni highlighted.
This also ties in with the exchange’s intention to launch B3RL, an in-house stablecoin, later this year, backed mainly by cash and government bonds, in line with other similar stablecoins.
In the future, this stablecoin would enable direct settlement of products using the blockchain network, though this is still just a proof of concept.
Finally, Nardoni acknowledged the relevance of blockchain and tokenization as an innovative catalyst for transforming legacy market structures. “Tokenization is advancing as one of the main drivers of transformation in the financial market,” he concluded.
The possibility of using blockchain for broker reconciliations was also considered to simplify record verification and position validation processes.
