Traditional finance is often complex and burdensome. Financial messaging services, correspondent banks, clearing houses, brokerage houses, central banks; there are so many players involved in these processes that it makes transaction times and costs skyrocket. With the legitimacy that Digital Assets have gained over the years, coupled with the fintech revolution, financial institutions have come to realize that there are more efficient alternatives to move value.

Although the more conservative may remain skeptical of Digital Assets such as bitcoin or ether, the tools for digitizing finance that this asset class has brought to the table do not leave them indifferent. Specifically, tokenization, which consists of the digital representation of a traditional financial product on Distributed Ledger Technology or Blockchain, drives these institutions to conduct tests in search of optimizing their processes.

The Central Bank of Singapore is probably the most daring traditional public institution when it comes to investigating strategies to take advantage of these technological innovations, diving into such deep waters as Decentralized Finance (DeFi), hand in hand with banks such as HSBC, JP Morgan, Standard Chartered, SBI and DBS. As a first result of this research, it is being demonstrated how well traditional finance can coexist with Digital Assets.

HSBC starts tokenization pilot for wealth management products in Singapore

HSBC bank is part of a series of tokenization pilots by Singapore's central bank, in this case with the digital issuance of wealth management products, with a view to increasing issuance efficiency and accessibility for investors.

The Federal Reserve raises interest rates to 3.75%

The leading U.S. monetary authority raised interest rates another 75 basis points, the fourth consecutive increase of such magnitude. This brings interest rates to a range between 3.75% and 4%.

Institutional Investment in Digital Assets Depends on "Recognized and Trusted" Custodians, Says BNY Mellon

The oldest U.S. bank surveyed at least 270 institutional investors, of which 190 said they would increase their exposure to Digital Assets if custodial services were offered by "recognized and trusted" financial institutions.

USDC stablecoin reserves now to be held in a fund managed by Black Rock

Circle, the company behind USDC stablecoins, announced that it would move the reserves that serve as collateral for the Digital Asset to a fund managed by Black Rock, which is registered with the SEC.

Regulation of Digital Assets will be a priority for new G20 presidency

Anantha Nageswaran, India's representative for the G20 presidency, set as his third priority for his tenure at the intergovernmental forum (which begins this December), "to accelerate the scale and scope of the global community's response to cross-border challenges such as the regulation of Digital Assets."

Goldman Sachs to provide its own Digital Assets classification system

In order to establish a standard taxonomy with which institutional investors can make sense of the enormous Digital Assets universe, Goldman Sachs partnered with global index provider MSCI and data firm Coin Metrics to provide a data service for this asset class.

Three spot bitcoin ETFs in Australia to be delisted

Cosmos Asset Management and One Managed Investment Funds filed applications with Cboe Australia to delist three spot bitcoin ETFs opened this 2022, due to price declines.

Colombian peso devaluation takes it to its lowest price ever against the dollar

On November 2, each U.S. dollar in Colombia passed the 5,000 Colombian peso barrier, the largest drop in the Latin American country's currency in its history. It is currently trading slightly below 5,100.

Appetite for gold by Central Banks reaches quarterly record high

The third quarter of 2022 reached the highest level of gold purchases by central banks since the World Gold Council began keeping records in 2000. Nearly 400 tons of gold were purchased by central banks, purchases led by Turkey, Uzbekistan and Qatar.