A group of big banks and other financial institutions are stepping up their efforts to tokenise global stock and bond markets by using solana, the blockchain best known for hosting the memecoins of Donald and Melania Trump. R3, a UK software group that has been developing blockchains for some of these big institutions, on Thursday agreed a deal with the Solana Foundation that will allow it and its customers to use the solana blockchain. The foundation, in turn, will make an undisclosed investment into R3, while its president, Lily Liu, will join R3’s board. R3 has about $10bn of tokenised assets on its networks and counts Euroclear, HSBC, Bank of America, the Italian central bank and the Monetary Authority of Singapore as customers. The move underscores how some of the financial industry’s biggest banks, fund managers and exchanges are experimenting with tokenised assets, such as shares and investment funds, on digital ledgers that are publicly available and maintained. Proponents of tokenisation believe that putting assets on the blockchain will open up more markets for investors, while also speeding up settlement times, freeing up collateral and cutting administrative costs. BlackRock chief executive Larry Fink has called tokenisation the “next generation” for markets. The asset manager has attracted $2.8bn to its tokenised money market fund since the start of the year, quadrupling its size, as investors move into digital securities that pay interest.

Full report : UK-based R3, a blockchain tech developer for financial institutions, partners with the Solana Foundation to let R3 customers use the Solana blockchain.