German-based tokenization and digital asset custody technology provider Bitbond, and Bankhaus von der Heydt (BVDH), one of Europe’s oldest banks, today announced they’ve joined forces to issue a Euro (EUR) stablecoin (EURB) on the Stellar network. Available today, the EURB stablecoin is the first stable coin issued directly by a banking institution on Stellar.
BVDH, in operation since 1754, has largely focused on serving institutional clients in securitization-related transactions. After exploring ways to make their securitization business more efficient with DLT technology, Bitbond’s white label tokenization technology emerged as the best way to do so. Stellar Development Foundation, the nonprofit organization supporting the development and growth of Stellar, facilitated the development of EURB and consulted with both Bitbond and BVDH regarding its technical integration.
EURB can be leveraged by BVDH’s customers as well as third party developers of financial applications to settle digital asset transfers on-chain. With the asset now live on Stellar, Bitbond will integrate it into the platform it built for BVDH to use the stablecoin for securitization which includes mechanisms for burning and minting the token. For the Stellar ecosystem, this adds a new on/off-ramp for EUR on the network. Any user or business looking to connect to EUR through Stellar rails can now do so.
“This is a testament to the ways that traditional banking and blockchain can work together, bringing together one of the oldest banks in Europe with a FinTech start-up to deliver exciting innovation in the digital currency space,” said Denelle Dixon, CEO and Executive Director of the Stellar Development Foundation. “Adding a high-quality, bank-issued euro asset to Stellar is meaningful for our users and builders on our network, powering a new wave of financial innovation, leveraged immediately by Stellar-based apps including DSTOQ, Vibrant, and Lobstr.”
“Bitbond has been working with Stellar since 2019, when we issued the first-ever tokenized security recognized by the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin), the financial regulatory authority for Germany,” said Radoslav Albrecht, Bitbond founder, and CEO. “With this delivery of stablecoin issuance technology, Bitbond has completed our digital assets tech suite which, up to now, included digital asset custody and tokenization technology.”
BVDH can now take paying agent functionality in-house to accelerate the issuance of new securitizations and create new opportunities with banking clients who want to issue tokenized financial assets with full on-chain settlement. Developers of financial applications can leverage BVDH’s EURB to settle asset transfers on-chain with a fully regulated 1:1 backed EUR stablecoin.
“We were drawn to Bitbond and Stellar due to the ease in which assets are issued and managed on the network,” said Philipp Doppelhammer, Bankhaus von der Heydt managing director. “In our first use-case, SatoshiPay, a blockchain payments company and one of the earliest members of the Stellar network, will implement our EURB into its service DTransfer. DTransfer facilitates global cross-border money transfers for its business customers by exchanging different stablecoins and linking into banking systems around the world.”
