RWA tokenization is gaining support in Europe, with AXA and Generali acquiring Ethereum-based SocGen green bonds.

French banking giant Societe Generale has completed the issuance of its first green bond token on the Ethereum network, as tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs) becomes increasingly popular among traditional financial institutions.

The bank issued 10 million euros ($10.8 million) worth of green bond tokens registered by SG-FORGE, the bank's digital asset division, the agency said on Monday.

Traditional financial institutions AXA Investment Managers (AXA IM) and Generali Investments bought tokenized bonds.

The bank intends to use the proceeds from the sale of the bonds to finance or refinance sustainable projects.

The issue underscores the growing interest in thethe use of blockchain technologies, including tokenization and stablecoins, by traditional financial institutions (TradFi).

Last month, JPMorgan and Apollo made headlines by showing several cryptocurrency companies how asset managers can tokenize funds on blockchain.

Tokenization means placing assets such as bonds, loans or real estate on the blockchain in the form of a token.

Investment firm 21.co predicts that the market value of tokenized assets could reach $10 trillion as more RWAs move to blockchain.

The digital format of issued bonds offers greater transparency and traceability, as well as faster transactions and settlement, the bank said.

"Issuebonds is also the first step towards using blockchain as a data repository and certification tool for issuers and investors to increase transparency in social enterprise and impact information on a global level," SocGen.

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AXA IM

The asset manager of French insurance giant AXA has purchased €5 million worth of bonds on behalf of AXA France using the EURCV stablecoin, pegged to the euro and managed by SG-FORGE, as part of a collaborative blockchain experiment, the company said in a separate press release on Monday.

"The purpose of this initiative, conducted in conjunction with SG-FORGE, was to allow us to experiment with the use of stablecoin as a settlement asset for thedigital bond acquisition," said AXA IM Head of Innovation and Strategic Initiatives Laurence Arnold.