SCCF and Horizon Capital leverage Taurus technology to execute tokenized trade finance debt transaction
Taurus SA (“Taurus”), a European leader in digital asset infrastructure for banks and institutions, partnered with SCCF Structured Commodity & Corporate Finance (“SCCF”), and Horizon Capital AG, trade finance and asset management experts, to execute a trade finance transaction through a tokenized note instrument with the help of Taurus.
Tokenization of private debt securities at the service of the real economy and renewable energy transformation
Taurus is pleased to announce that SCCF, a Swiss-based trade finance expert founded in 2004, partnered with Taurus to issue a note in the form of ledger-based securities – a process commonly referred to as “tokenization”. The note was issued to finance a loan to a commodity trading firm active in biofuels. The loan was used to purchase commodities.
The tokenization of the debt instrument was carried out using the CMTAT, a smart contract framework published by the Capital Markets and Technology Association (CMTA), a Swiss not-for-profit organization based in Geneva, whose purpose is to promote the use of new technologies in traditional capital markets.
The tokenization process could be carried out in a couple of minutes using Taurus’ tokenization platform Taurus-CAPITAL.
Straightforward transaction process
The transaction was carried out in three main steps:
- SCCF issued a 3-month note (“Tokenised Note”) as ledger-based securities. Said ledger-based securities were created using the CMTAT, an open-source smart contract published by the CMTA and specifically dedicated to the tokenization of securities, and recorded on Ethereum, a public blockchain.
- SCCF’s Tokenised Note was then purchased by Horizon Capital AG. The trade was executed through Taurus’ T-DX regulated marketplace for tokenized securities.
- The proceeds of the sale of the Tokenised Note were lent by SCCF to a Swiss commodities trading firm active in biofuels.
Both SCCF and Horizon Capital used Taurus’ end-to-end platform: T-DX, Taurus’ regulated marketplace for tokenized securities to execute the Tokenised Note transaction, Taurus-CAPITAL to manage the smart contract and perform asset servicing of its securities. Lenz & Staehelin, the Swiss law firm, advised SCCF in this transaction.
“We are very pleased to have concretized our long-term project to tokenize commodity trade finance with our Swiss partners Horizon Capital and Taurus, bringing security, efficiency and cost-efficient transactions. This transaction gave access to short-term financing related to real physical trades of essential commodities used on a daily basis. Taurus enabled us to take advantage of blockchain technology – tokenisation, custody, and secondary trading – while Horizon Capital has access to qualified investors willing to enter the real economy through secured digitized instruments.” Dimitri Rusca, Founder and CEO of SCCF
“We are very pleased to offer new investment solutions in partnership with Taurus by creating a global offer for our investors. ” Sebastien Max, Managing Partner at Horizon Capital
2023 is the year of tokenization. Embracing the digitization of private assets and unlocking new benefits
“We are pleased with the partnership with SCCF to tokenize the world’s first trade finance transaction on a public blockchain. This pilot showed that tokenisation could be used to optimize capital allocation and to finance the real economy in a more efficient way in comparison with the traditional paper-based alternatives.” Lamine Brahimi, co-founder and managing partner of Taurus
Taurus believes that digitization of private assets and securities is becoming the new standard in the digital asset industry. Consistent with its belief, Taurus has developed a full technology stack to support its clients, mainly a tokenization platform, digital asset custody, and digital asset nodes completed by a FINMA license to trade tokenized securities. To this day, Taurus has been involved in the tokenization of 15 companies covering equity, private debt, and structured products from Swiss and European firms.
About SCCF
SCCF SA (Structured Commodities and Corporate Finance) was established by former major bankers specialized in commodity trade finance, it originates and provides commodity backed investment opportunities to small and mid-size commodity merchants since 2004. SCCF specializes in sourcing short to mid-term financing for companies active in the trading, production, processing, tolling, transportation and distribution of essential commodities throughout the world. For further information on SCCF, please visit https://sccf.ch
About Horizon Capital
Horizon Capital AG is a Swiss company active in asset management, offering a range of investment solutions to institutional clients globally. Incorporated in Zug in 2017, Horizon specializes in short-duration, absolute return, and low-volatility debt strategies. As the investment partner of SCCF, Horizon has privileged access to borrowers (SMEs) in Europe, Asia, North America and the Gulf Countries Region. For further information on Horizon Capital, please visit https://horizoncap.ch/
About Taurus
Taurus SA is a Swiss company, founded in April 2018, that provides enterprise-grade digital asset infrastructure to issue, custody and trade any digital assets: cryptocurrencies, including staking, tokenized assets and digital currencies. With more than 60% market share in Switzerland, it is also the European leader in the banking segment, entrusted by the full spectrum of financial institutions: systemic banks, universal banks, online banks, crypto-banks, private banks, and broker-dealers. Taurus also operates a regulated marketplace for private assets and tokenized securities. For further information on Taurus: please visit https://www.taurushq.com
Image by Christophe Schindler from Pixabay
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