Catenaa, Friday July 10, 2025- NRW.BANK, a German state-owned development bank, has issued a €100 million ($116.7 million) bond fully registered on the Polygon blockchain, marking a significant milestone in public sector adoption of blockchain-based securities.1
The two-year maturity bond was issued under Germany’s Electronic Securities Act (eWpG), which enables digital issuance and registration of securities on distributed ledgers, removing the need for physical certificates.
NRW.BANK utilized Cashlink Technologies, a BaFin-licensed registrar, with Polygon serving as the underlying blockchain network.
Institutional investors including Deutsche Bank, DZ BANK, and DekaBank participated as joint lead managers. Michael Duttlinger, CEO of Cashlink, described the issuance as a signal that public financial institutions are ready to integrate blockchain systems beyond pilot projects.
This issuance coincides with Polygon’s upcoming Heimdall 2.0 upgrade scheduled for Thursday, which aims to reduce transaction finality time to five seconds and improve network resilience by minimizing chain reorganizations.
Germany’s eWpG law, introduced in 2021, has accelerated adoption of digital bonds, with institutions like KfW, Siemens, and DZ BANK also issuing tokenized securities. Digital bonds offer benefits such as real-time tracking, faster settlements, and lower administrative costs.
Beyond bonds, Germany’s banking sector is expanding crypto services. The Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe plans to introduce crypto trading for retail customers by mid-2026, in line with the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation.
Polygon, despite market cap decline, remains a leader in tokenization, ranking sixth globally with over $343 million in real-world assets tokenized on its network, holding 37.7% of the tokenized bond market.
- https://x.com/0xPolygon/status/1943384241418420522[↩]
