Santander Completes its Blockchain-based Bond Trial on Ethereum

Blockchain technology still has the potential to disrupt traditional finance. Santander is moving ahead with its DLT venture after successfully redeeming a digital bond. 

Santander has been active in the blockchain industry for several years now.

Another Blockchain Milestone for Santander

Albeit most of its projects are kept under wraps, this particular development isn’t kept under wraps.

The bank has confirmed it experimented with redeeming a digital bond.

That bond was issued on the public Ethereum blockchain, and is valued at roughly $20m.

Now that the technology to redeem this bond has been deemed viable, it will be interesting to see what Santander plans to do next.

The bond was initially issued three months ago as an Ethereum token.

During the redemption process, a different token – representing cash held in a custody account – was used

Its redemption could have been problematic, yet it appears debt securities can be adequately managed through a public blockchain. 

It is worth noting this transaction did not involve any other banks or third-party service providers.

Santander is the issuer and redeemer of this pilot bond. 

To date, Santander is still the biggest bank to publicly issue such a high-value bond on a public chain.

Whether other banks will experiment with public ledgers in the future, has not been confirmed at this time.

Following such a successful trial, the excitement regarding blockchain will undoubtedly increase.