Canada Completes Tokenized Bond Pilot Using DLT

Canada's Project Samara试点成功,发行了首支代币化债券,利用分布式账本技术推动金融创新。

Canadian Tokenized Bond Pilot: A Step Forward in Financial Innovation

Canada has completed a pilot program, known as Project Samara, that explored the use of distributed ledger technology (DLT) in bond markets. The project, involving the Bank of Canada, Export Development Canada, Royal Bank of Canada, and TD Bank Group, resulted in the issuance of the country’s first tokenized bond.

Project Samara: Key Components and Outcomes

During the pilot, Export Development Canada issued a $100 million Canadian dollar ($73.6 million) bond with a maturity of less than three months. The bond was issued, traded, and settled on a distributed ledger platform, with payments processed using wholesale central bank deposits. The platform, built on Hyperledger Fabric, enabled participants to manage the bond’s lifecycle, including issuance, bidding, coupon payments, redemption, and secondary trading. By integrating separate ledgers for cash and bonds, the system facilitated near-instant settlement.

The pilot demonstrated potential operational improvements and enhanced data integrity. However, it also highlighted challenges in governance, regulation, and system integration. According to researchers, the results suggest that DLT could improve settlement efficiency and reduce counterparty risk. Nonetheless, broader adoption may face hurdles due to infrastructure and regulatory considerations.

Global Trend: Adoption of Tokenized Bonds

Canada's initiative is part of a broader trend of governments and financial institutions exploring the use of blockchain for traditional financial assets. An early example is the 2018 issuance of the World Bank's "Bond-i," the first bond recorded on a blockchain, arranged by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. In 2022, the Monetary Authority of Singapore launched Project Guardian to investigate the use of DLT in wholesale financial markets.

Expansion and Future Potential

In 2023, Hong Kong issued a tokenized green bond, facilitated by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. The program was expanded with additional digital bond offerings in 2024 and 2025. The World Bank also issued a Swiss franc digital bond on the SIX Digital Exchange in 2024, using settlement through the Swiss National Bank's wholesale central bank digital currency.

These initiatives underscore the growing interest in using DLT to streamline bond issuance, trading, and settlement, highlighting both the potential benefits and the challenges that remain in achieving widespread adoption.


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