Digital asset custody firm Fireblocks announced it acquired Australian smart contract developer BlockFold. The two blockchain firms have previously worked together, particularly on Project Eden, the Israeli government bond trial with the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE). Of particular interest is BlockFold’s skills in tokenization.
Fireblocks is well known for raising $1 billion in funding and numerous high profile clients. These include BNY Mellon, BNP Paribas Securities Services, ANZ and the SIX Digital Exchange.
It says it has seen a 350% increase in tokenization projects between 2022 and 2023. Fireblocks claims that three quarters of tier-1 financial institutions are exploring tokenization via its platform and that it’s talking to 25 banks globally who are looking to issue stablecoins or tokenized deposits. Hence it needs the in-house tech expertise that BlockFold brings.
BlockFold develops customized token solutions and has been involved in several institutional projects. It boasts clients such as the Bank of International Settlements Innovation Hub, Swiss National Bank, Banque de France, Singapore’s Ministry of Finance, Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and National Australia Bank. Past projects include tokenized deposits, stablecoins, CBDCs, carbon credits and other tokenized assets. We’d speculate that BlockFold may have worked on Project Mariana, which explored DeFi for cross border CBDC. That’s because of the combination of CBDC, Switzerland, France and Singapore.
“BlockFold’s expertise fills an important gap in the market, tailoring bespoke solutions for some of our most sophisticated customers and prospects in the banking and financial institutions space,” said Michael Shaulov, Co-founder & CEO at Fireblocks. “We already speak a common language in understanding these customers’ requirements at an architectural level. Bringing BlockFold’s expertise in-house means that we can better serve tier-1 financial institutions to quickly and seamlessly bring tokenization projects into production.”
Fireblocks collaborates with so many platforms, that anything it does might compete with a partner. In its announcement, the company emphasized that it will continue to collaborate with other tokenization partners including Bitbond, Securitize, Securrency and Tokeny.
Meanwhile, Fireblocks recently announced a long term alliance with the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. “Fireblocks’ acquisition of BlockFold stands to strengthen its tokenization capabilities and bridge the gap between CeFi and DeFi by allowing financial institutions like TASE to build robust and scalable infrastructures and support well-governed digital asset ecosystems,” said Orly Grinfeld, EVP, Head of Clearing at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.
