Libre, an institutional web3 infrastructure protocol for the issuance and distribution of tokenized alternative assets, launched today for eligible investors.
Libre, developed by WebN Group and Laser Digital, based on Polygon technology, was first released last January, with institutional heavyweights Brevan Howard and Hamilton Lane lining up to be among the first to use the platform.
Laser Digital is the cryptocurrency arm of financial services company Nomura. WebN Group is an incubation hub for fintech and web3 innovators, backed by Alan Howard, co-founder of Laser Digital and Brevan Howard. The two companies also worked closely with Polygon Labs on protocol development.
Libre is not the only project working on tokenizing funds. Last November, JPMorgan’s Onyx partnered with asset and wealth managers to tokenize, purchase, and rebalance real-world asset positions across multiple blockchains. That same month, SC Ventures, the investment and innovation arm of Standard Chartered, launched a tokenization platform called Libeara.
According to a statement, Libre is primarily focused on alternative investments, but also provides access to money market funds from companies like BlackRock, allowing investors to safely deploy their funds with the flexibility to switch to alternative markets.
Libre founder Dr. .Avtar Sehra said.
How Libre Works
Leveraging asset tokenization and smart contracts, Libre is designed for the compliant issuance and management of alternative investments. The protocol was built using the Polygon Chain Development Kit (CDK), which enables zero-knowledge layer 2 blockchain development specifically built on Ethereum.
The project is also working to integrate with other layer 1 and layer 2 networks through the Libre gateway, which will allow accredited professional and institutional investors from other networks to access the top alternative investments and money market funds available through Libre. can.
“As foundations and infrastructure become suited to the tokenization of institutional financial products, innovative use cases will be the next phase of development,” said Colin Butler, Global Head of Institutional Capital at Polygon Labs. “We are excited to foster an entry point for Tier-1 funds at Libre and see the gateway as the foundation of a fundamentally improved global financial system.”
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