Euromoney’s first award for innovation, a new category in our awards for excellence, goes to the EIB’s €100 million two-year bond, joint lead managed by Goldman Sachs, Santander and Societe Generale.
The deal priced on April 27, 2021. It was issued registered and settled on Ethereum and is the debt capital market’s first multi-dealer-led, primary issuance of digitally native tokens on an open public blockchain.
Digitally native security tokens are issued at the outset on blockchains in the form of smart contracts that pre-programme the whole lifecycle of coupon and principal repayments.
There are going to be more and more of them. If traditional finance does eventually transition onto new blockchain rails, new issues will lead the way.
