- The company sold the bond directly to investors without using paper-based global certificates
- Speed and efficiency improve without central clearing
Siemens announced it has issued a digital bond worth $64 million on February 14, becoming one of the first companies in Germany to do so, CryptoDaily reported. The bond will mature in a year and was issued in compliance with the German Electronic Securities Act.
According to the company, it sold the bond directly to investors without using paper-based global certificates or central clearing. Issuing bonds on a blockchain in this manner improves transaction speed and efficiency as opposed to conventional methods.
Process completed in just two days
Among the investors in the digital bond were Union Investment, DZ Bank, and DekaBank. It took only two days to issue the bond on the Polygon blockchain. MATIC, Polygon’s native crypto, gained over 7% on the news. At the time of writing, one MATIC token was trading for $1.27 according to CoinMarketCap data. It has gained another 2.74% in the last 24 hours.
A digital pioneer
Siemens has been trying to establish itself as an early adopter of digital solutions for the securities and capital markets for some. Peter Rathgeb, Corporate Treasurer of the company, talked about their blockchain and crypto ambitions:
By moving away from paper and toward public blockchains for issuing securities, we can execute transactions significantly faster and more efficiently than when issuing bonds in the past. Thanks to our successful cooperation with our project partners, we have reached an important milestone in the development of digital securities in Germany.
A history in crypto
Siemens has been making swift progress in the crypto and blockchain space over the past three years. In 2020, the German tech giant lent support to Pebbles, a blockchain-based energy trading exchange and platform.
In 2021, the company reached a partnership with JPMorgan Chase to work on a digital payment system. The blockchain-based network aimed to make payments simpler and easier via automatic money transfers.
