From February 1, Switzerland is allowed to issue tokenized assets. Sygnum Bank was the first to tokenize “investment vintage wines” by issuing tokens on the Desygnate platform.
The Swiss bank Sygnum tokenized the first set of assets in accordance with the country’s new law on the use of distributed ledger technology (DLT). Sygnum Bank has teamed up with Fine Wine Capital AG to tokenize a range of “investment vintage wines” and has issued tokens representing alcohol assets on the Sygnum Desygnate platform.
The release of assets became possible thanks to the entry into force of the first stage of the new law on February 1, which allows the registration and transfer of tokenized assets. The law will open up access to luxury goods such as diamonds and fine wines to more investors by increasing the availability and liquidity of such assets.
“Tokenization of wine assets allows us to expand our base of private investor-collectors with new private and institutional investors. This gives them the ability to efficiently store, trade or request physical settlement for this unique asset, ”said Fine Wine co-founder Alexandre Challand.
Ownership records of tokenized assets issued on Desygnate are recorded on the legally binding blockchain ledger. Ownership rights can be transferred to others exclusively through the DLT system in accordance with the new Swiss law. Sygnum’s head of regulatory technology, Gino Wirthensohn, said:
“The legislative provisions that have come into force ensure that asset tokenization has become a viable alternative to traditional securitization.”
The new law, first proposed by the Swiss Federal Council in 2019, went through a rigorous legislative process before being approved by both the lower and upper houses of parliament last summer. In early August, the second stage of the law comes into force, which concerns the modernization of infrastructure in the financial markets.
As a reminder, in December Sygnum tokenized its shares using the Ethereum blockchain and the Desygnate asset tokenization platform. The bank also announced preparations for the upcoming IPO.
