New legal provisions on distributed ledger technology (DLT) went into effect on Feb. 1 in Switzerland. After the implementation, two local companies announced that they had issued the first tokenized asset under the brand-new law.

‘Fine Wine’ Token Is Available for Sygnum Bank’s Clients

Per the announcement, Swiss digital asset bank Sygnum and Fine Wine Capital AG launched collectible premium wine-backed tokens, becoming the first ones under the new blockchain rules.

Assets tokenized through Sygnum’s platform, Desygnate, will be recognized under a new category of ledger-based securities in the law. According to the digital asset bank, the “Fine Wine” token is available in the “Art & Collectibles” category for Sygnum’s clients.

The “Swiss Federal Act on the Adaptation of Federal Law to Developments in Distributed Ledger Technology” allows companies to develop a framework that links financial and real assets ownership to a DLT-based asset token.

Alexandre Challand, Fine Wine Capital’s co-founder, provided more details about how the new rules benefit investors:

Tokenization of wine assets enables us to expand our private collector investor base to new private and institutional investors interested in fractional ownership in distinctive real assets. This provides them the opportunity to hold, trade or request a physical settlement of this unique asset in an efficient manner.

Also, Gino Wirthensohn, Sygnum Bank’s head of regtech, believes that new legal provisions bring a “viable alternative to traditional securitization from a legal point of view.”

Recent Cases of Tokenized Assets

Asset tokenization keeps its growing trend alive across a wide range of markets. Recently, Coreledger announced that they will work with Abakus to set up a “digital barter economy” in Argentina.

The project consists of enabling farmers to tokenize their agricultural assets to seek a hedge against rising inflation. In this case, Argentine farmers could redeem and trade their tokenized titles with any other asset through the Akabus P2P platform.

In Russia, one of the world’s biggest palladium producers, Nornickel, revealed in December 2020 that they had started the first stage of issuing digital coins that involve metal contracts.

The Russian mining giant pointed out that its first-stage tokens will be tied to palladium, cobalt, copper mining, and exploration.

What do you think about this tokenization of Swiss premium investible wines? Let us know in the comments section below.