Rabobank is pleased to announce its collaboration with 2Tokens, ABN AMRO, and Assetblocks in our joint application for the European Blockchain Sandbox (EBS).
Our use case has been accepted by the EU in the 1st Cohort 2023. Our partnership aims to legally explore the innovative use case of a tokenized financial security and a stablecoin integration. Together, we want to bridge the gap between the physical world and the digital economy by tokenizing real assets and the euro’s used for the payments.
The existing Assetblocks ‘base case’ presents an innovative opportunity for individuals to invest in tracking stocks that represent renewable energy sources. Through the acquisition of the tokens, investors gain co-ownership of solar, wind, or battery parks and are entitled to receive profits generated by these assets. The proof of ownership is represented by a Non-Fungible Token (NFT), which is classified as a security under the MiFID II regulations. This ensures compliance and provides investors with confidence in the asset-backed nature of their holdings. The NFT purchase or sale and the distribution of dividends are currently conducted via “conventional” Euros.
Our use case aims to explore the use of Euro or bank deposit stablecoins in a sandbox setting. Both non-hosted and hosted wallets provided by banks will support these stablecoin transactions, ensuring new ways of accessibility and convenience for investors. Other options to tokenize these assets as a financial instrument (security tokens) can also be explored. Having been accepted in the EBS, allows us to safely discuss relevant regulatory topics with EU and individual European member state regulatory frameworks.
The NFTs have embedded metadata, providing critical information about the underlying assets. Each NFT can be verified at the lowest aggregate level, enabling investors to track production and access real-time value data. In compliance with regulatory requirements, all investors must complete a Know Your Customer (KYC) procedure during the onboarding process. Once whitelisted, investors can easily purchase NFTs using Euros. We are interested to explore the payment in Euro based stablecoins. The applicable procedures include the whitelisting of non-hosted or hosted wallets.
"We are excited to collaborate with ABN AMRO, Assetblocks, and Rabobank in our application for the EBS," said Alex Bausch, Chairman at 2Tokens. "Assetblocks represents a significant step forward in democratizing investments and creating a decentralized economy. By leveraging blockchain technology, we are opening up new possibilities for investors and contributing to a sustainable future."
Meindert Jansberg, CEO of Assetblocks: “By collaborating with ABN AMRO and Rabobank in this regulatory sandbox, the project aims to help create a common understanding of the true possibilities
of tokenization in a fully compliant way. Using this approach, the project hopes to pave the path for future tokenization and stablecoin related projects, unleashing the full potential of tokenization for society.”
Martijn Siebrand, Digital Assets ABN AMRO: "The use case in the EBS is of interest because we can build further on our digital assets capabilities and learn about new topics and developments. We will learn from the regulators as well as from the use case together with industry partners."
Marjan van der Plas, Blockchain Acceleration Lab at Rabobank: “In the new digital and tokenized assets space there is still a lot of ambiguity in regulatory frameworks. The EBS provides an excellent opportunity for us and our partners to safely experiment with the regulators to further shape our mutual understanding of these frameworks. The lessons learned from these joint experiments can be a next step in the development of digital and tokenized assets in the EU.”
About European Blockchain Regulatory Sandbox
The goal of the European Blockchain Regulatory Sandbox is to facilitate the cross-border dialogue with and between regulators and supervisors on the one hand, and companies or public authorities on the other hand. In these dialogues, use case developers can present their business case to receive legal guidance from regulators. The sandbox establishes a pan-European framework for regulatory dialogues to increase legal certainty for innovative blockchain solutions. Funded by the Digital Europe Programme and delivering on the SME strategy, the sandbox is running from 2023 to 2026 and will annually support 20 projects including public sector use cases on the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure.