China Construction Bank (CCB) will allow blockchain-based digital securities to be exchanged for Bitcoin.
Beijing-based CCB, the runner-up for largest bank in the world by market cap, has partnered with fintech company Fusang to allow the purchase of blockchain-backed bonds, reports the South China Morning Post. The bank will allow trading on $3 billion worth of digital debt today.
In addition, customers will be able to trade the CCB’s new digitized bonds with the US dollar or Bitcoin (BTC).
If the ability to trade this BTC pair proves popular among the CCB’s customer base, Fusang intends to pursue the expansion of the feature across other CCB currencies and securities.
The head of the Labuan branch, Felix Feng Qi, says the offering will serve to “narrow the divide between fintech and the wider financial markets.”
The digitized bonds will originally be sold in the form of certificates of deposit from the CCB’s Labuan branch.
The certificates of deposit are usually sold in larger amounts to institutional investors, but utilizing tokenized securities will allow smaller investors to more easily take part in the sale.
The tokenization of debt securities will also reduce the cost of offering bonds by reducing the amount of intermediaries involved in the process.
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