Brevan Howard participates in institutional effort to tokenize funds

January 10, 2024 at 9:16 pm

Edited by Brian Stone

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Brevan Howard participates in institutional effort to tokenize funds

Libre, a groundbreaking web3 protocol by WebN Group and Laser Digital, harnesses Polygon technology for regulatory-compliant alternative investment management.

WebN Group and Laser Digital have jointly introduced Libre, a web3 protocol powered by Polygon technology. Laser Digital, the crypto arm of Nomura, and WebN Group, a fintech and web3 incubation hub backed by Laser Digital and Brevan Howard co-founder Alan Howard, collaborate on this project.

The institutions have arrived on Polygon CDK. For the first time, a financial institution-focused L2 is being built, settling to Ethereum.

Introducing Libre, institutional web3 infrastructure for the distribution of alternative asset funds, launched by WebN and @LaserDigital_.… pic.twitter.com/Ybs3Ul8Fzv
— Polygon (Labs) (@0xPolygonLabs) January 10, 2024

Libre utilizes asset tokenization and smart contracts, focusing on regulatory-compliant issuance and management of alternative investments. The protocol is built on Polygon’s Chain Development Kit (CDK), allowing the creation of purpose-built Layer 2 blockchains on Ethereum.

Libre’s founder, Dr. Avtar Sehra, with a history in real-world asset tokenization, envisions additional use cases such as collateralized lending and automated portfolio rebalancing. Scheduled to go live in Q1 2024, Libre has already gained interest from investment management firms Brevan Howard and Hamilton Lane. Both anticipate using the platform, emphasizing its potential to revolutionize investment management and trading through tokenization.

While Libre stands out in its innovation, it’s part of a broader trend in the industry. JPMorgan’s Onyx, WisdomTree, Apollo, and others collaborated on a blockchain interoperability proof-of-concept for investment portfolio management. SC Ventures also launched Libeara, a tokenization platform, with the SGD Delta Fund being the first to use it, receiving an AA rating from Moody’s.