Digital Issuances on Canton Surged in 2024, Setting the Stage for Rapid Growth and Liquidity in 2025

2024 saw an acceleration in digital bonds issued on Canton Network, with five issuances on three separate platforms totaling more than USD 1.1 billion. Since 2022, Canton-connected platforms have been responsible for 57.5% (over USD 4.6 billion) of the USD 8 billion of digital bonds issued during the last five years.¹

These numbers reflect Canton Network’s leading position as the go-to public chain for tokenizing assets with privacy. The growing pool of fixed income assets leverage the unparalleled efficiency and transparency of blockchain, enabling greater mobility and utility across digital finance and forging new market opportunities for institutions and crypto investors alike. 

Fixed income issuances are also outpacing those on other public networks as tracked by rwa.xyz

The rapid pace of digital issuances demonstrates confidence in the underlying technology and the efficiency and risk reduction benefits it delivers. As digital capital markets take shape, Canton network Issuances in 2024 included some notable firsts:

• First digital GBP bond
• First digital multi-currency green bond
• First bond settled with a CBDC

Furthermore, the two bonds issued on Canton as part of the ECB trials successfully achieved atomic settlement.²

Taken together, Canton has demonstrated that cross-border digital capital markets exist today across an interconnected network, with digital bond issuances that reflect the complexity of global capital markets. 

By issuing on platforms connected on Canton, these digital bonds are part of an expanding ecosystem of interconnected providers and services spanning all facets of financial markets. Unlike private networks that act as digital islands, which introduce new kinds of fragmentation and limit the formation of liquidity, issuances on Canton can connect across CSDs in different jurisdictions and legal frameworks while maintaining privacy and regulatory compliance. They have achieved atomic settlement by linking to stablecoins and CBDCs, and are reaching large global investors looking to leverage growing crypto wallets. 
 
The rise in digital bond issuance is no accident. Bonds and other fixed income securities form the backbone of post-trade financing, and are widely used as collateral in margining and securities financing transactions. Digital bond issuance creates a significant ripple effect: 

• Greater efficiency from faster issuance, accelerated funding, real-time settlement and lower debt financing costs
• Reduced or eliminated counterparty and settlement risk from atomic real time settlement
• Expanded access to funding as lower cost of issuance makes debt financing more accessible to small and mid-sized organizations
• Enhanced transparency with real time market data reporting and regulatory oversight, built in compliance and controls, and accurate, more accessible data
• New financing options with programmable features that enable ESG and green-enabled financing with traceability and certainty
• Improved liquidity with 24x7 trading, asset mobility and more efficient secondary markets 

Liquidity is the hallmark of robust capital markets, and as the growing supply of digital bonds can reach institutional and crypto wallets, those deeper pools of liquidity are forming. The technology and open governance structure of Canton Network provide certainty on both sides of the trade. And, as the only L1 network with native privacy, Canton Network harnesses the innovation and pace of crypto and ensures the privacy and safeguards demanded by capital markets.

With this proven technology, we are at an inflection point. It’s time to connect growing pools of digital tradfi assets with the massive volume of activity on the crypto side seeking greater exposure and connectivity to create a better global economic market. 

¹The Value Exchange, DLT in the Real World, 2024

² EIB wrap-up on its contribution to the ECB trials, Nov 2024