Australia’s ANZ joins Project Guardian on tokenized assets

Australia’s ANZ Bank is partnering with the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Chainlink Labs, and ADDX to explore tokenized assets and blockchain interoperability.

ANZ Bank, one of Australia’s “Big Four” banks, has become the first Australian bank to join Project Guardian, an initiative by the Monetary Authority of Singapore aimed at exploring how real-world assets can be represented as digital tokens on blockchains, according to a press release from ANZ.

This move allows ANZ to work with Chainlink Labs (LINK) and ADDX to test the exchange of tokenized assets, such as commercial paper, between private blockchains.

ANZ adopted Chainlink’s cross-chain interoperability protocol to simulate tokenized asset purchases. This move followed insights from the Swift blockchain interoperability project started in June.

Tokenization refers to the process of turning traditional assets, like money market funds, into digital tokens that can be used on blockchain networks. It converts real assets into digital tokens, allowing them to be traded more easily, like stocks or cryptocurrencies. 

ANZ aims to determine whether these digital versions of real-world assets can move more efficiently and securely across different blockchain networks. The bank hopes this will help improve how money and goods flow across the Asia-Pacific region.

Interoperability 

Tokenized assets often face interoperability issues, meaning different blockchains can’t easily communicate. Interoperability is a barrier to tokenization, often creating isolated networks that don’t inherently communicate with each other.

ANZ plans to use its experience with digital assets, such as its Australian Dollar stablecoin, to help customers navigate this evolving digital finance landscape.

According to the release, Project Guardian, launched in 2022, promotes collaboration between regulators and the financial industry to enhance liquidity and efficiency in financial markets through tokenization.