The Monetary Authority of Singapore, or MAS, has rolled out Project Guardian, a collaborative initiative with the financial industry aimed at expanding asset tokenization initiatives and building foundational capabilities to scale tokenized markets. In accordance with the press release, the project seeks to accelerate institutional adoption of digital assets, aiming to enhance liquidity, unlock investment opportunities, and improve the efficiency of financial markets.
Under Project Guardian, an industry group consisting of 17 financial institutions [FIs] has set the ball rolling by initiating five industry pilots to test promising asset tokenization use cases. These trials aim to integrate across the capital markets value chain, including listing, distribution, trading, settlement, and asset servicing. Notable initiatives include trials by Citi, T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., and Fidelity International to explore efficient mechanisms for pricing and executing bilateral digital asset trades.
Below is the list released by MAS showing interop contributors including DBS, HSBC, Onyx by J.P. Morgan, SBI Digital Asset Holdings, Schroder, Standard Chartered, Swift, UBS, UOB, Ava Labs, Chainlink, and LayerZero.
Additionally, MAS is collaborating with international policymakers and financial institutions on a new initiative called Global Layer One [GL1]. GL1 aims to design an open digital infrastructure that will host tokenized financial assets and applications, facilitating seamless cross-border transactions and trading across global liquidity pools while adhering to regulatory requirements. The International Monetary Fund [IMF] staff has joined Project Guardian’s policymaker group, offering an international perspective on policies and legal issues related to cross-border platforms.
MAS Chart New Waters
The Deputy Managing Director of MAS, Mr. Leong Sing Chiong, emphasized the success of Project Guardian’s industry pilots in demonstrating the seamless trading, distribution, and settlement of tokenized financial assets across borders. To fully realize the potential of tokenized markets, MAS believes a scalable digital infrastructure is crucial and welcomes additional stakeholders to contribute to the development of the GL1 initiative.
In the previous month, Singapore’s MAS unveiled its intention to collaborate with Japan, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom to facilitate discussions on legal, policy, and accounting aspects related to digital assets. The initiative aims to bolster the development of cross-border digital assets, encourage the implementation of digital asset pilot programs within regulatory sandboxes, and foster the exchange of knowledge among regulatory bodies and industries.