Tokenized U.S. Treasuries Arrive to XDC Network as Digital Bond Market Grows

Tradeteq, a U.K-based private debt and real-world asset marketplace, on Tuesday rolled out a tokenized U.S. Treasury offering on the layer 1 blockchain XDC Network, the firm said.

The U.S. Treasury Yield (USTY) tokens represent blockchain-based versions of shares in a U.S. Treasury bond exchange-traded fund (ETF), and are accessible for professional investors on Tradeteq’s Yieldteq platform. Tokenization service provider Securitize onboards buyers, tracks share ownership and manages dividend payouts.

The new offering comes as tokenization has become one of the hottest trends in the battered-down digital asset industry. A Bank of America report said that the tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs) – creating blockchain-based tokens of traditional financial assets such as government bonds or private equity – could transform the financial infrastructure, while Bernstein forecasted it could grow a 5 trillion market in the next five years.

Demand for tokenized Treasuries has grown nearly sixfold to $622 million this year, according to rwa.xyz. Crypto firms and investment funds seek these products to enjoy higher government bond rates, while yields in crypto lending have plunged amid massive deleveraging during the bear market.

XDC joins a fierce competition between blockchains to be the premier venue for tokenized assets. Stellar and Ethereum are the leading markets for tokenized Treasuries, but other networks are also making headway with RWA adoption. JPMorgan executed trades with tokenized versions of the Japanese yen and the Singapore dollar using the Polygon (MATIC) network, while Securitize issued equity tokens of a real estate investment trust on the Avalanche (AVAX) blockchain.