Milano Hub, the innovation centre powered by Bank of Italy, has selected Cetif Advisory’s ecosystem project “Institutional DeFi for Security Token” as part of its second Call for Proposals, to support the development of the initiative without any commercialisation purpose.
Cetif Advisory – the consultancy spinoff of Cetif Research Centre of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore of Milan – led the collaboration between Fireblocks, an enterprise-grade platform delivering an infrastructure for managing digital assets, technical developer Reply, blockchain platform Polygon Technology, legal consultant Linklaters and the web3 studio DVRS, to launch the initiative: the ecosystem project “Institutional DeFi for Security Token”, focused on the secondary market, involves the liquidity provision and trading (swapping) of security tokens in order to develop and test an institutional-level AMM.
The project, unique in Italy and Europe, will involve leading Italian banks, asset management companies (SGR) and financial institutions, including AcomeA SGR – Gimme 5, Banca Mediolanum, Banca Sella, Banca Popolare di Sondrio, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, Credem, Euromobiliare AM SGR, Hype, Intesa Sanpaolo and Mediobanca.
The projects selected by the Bank of Italy will receive for 6 months – starting from July 2023 – from the Milano Hub support in their development path through the offer of sectoral expertise in banking, finance, insurance and law, as well as the opportunity to participate in seminars, events, conferences with representatives of the selected projects, institutions and academia.
DeFi (Decentralised Finance) is an innovative financial technology based on decentralised protocols (enabled by permissionless blockchain and smart contracts) that aim to replicate existing financial services in an accessible and transparent manner. Nowadays, the spread of DeFi poses a risk as the services offered are mainly used by retail investors in an unregulated and uncertain environment: from this perspective, the “Institutional DeFi for Security Token” project aims to enable institutional players to operate in this environment in compliance with regulatory guidelines and requirements, offering their clients the typical advantages of the technology, with a view to significant returns, but drastically mitigating security risks, in order to safeguard all actors involved.
The Linklaters team that followed the legal and fiscal aspects of the project involved Alessandro Tanno, coordinator of the Fintech and Digital Transformation Group of Linklaters Italy, the counsel Anna Ferraresso, the managing associate Giulio Farolfi and the trainee Gabriele Caldarini.
“Linklaters is delighted to collaborate on this innovative and strategic project, in order to enable institutional operators to act in compliance with regulatory requirements, significantly limiting DeFi’s risks”
stated Alessandro Tanno.
