Clifford Chance advises on Singapore’s first industry pilot for cross-currency transactions on tokenised deposits

Leading international law firm Clifford Chance has advised JP Morgan and SBI Digital Asset Holdings on its successful first industry pilot under the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Project Guardian, a collaborative initiative with the financial industry which explores the potential of applications in asset tokenisation, including deposit tokenisation, and decentralised finance. JP Morgan and SBI conducted a live foreign exchange transaction with tokenised Japanese Yen and Singapore Dollar deposits.

The team comprising partner Lena Ng and associate Yaru Chia assisted in preparing the agreement between parties which documented this live foreign exchange transaction, with the agreement providing details relating to the transaction execution, including how the parties would interact with the decentralised finance protocol, and verifiable credentials. The team also provided regulatory advice on novel issues relating to such transaction, including the regulatory treatment of these tokenised liabilities under Singapore law.

Lena Ng said, “We are honoured to have advised JP Morgan and SBI Digital Asset Holdings on this landmark pilot transaction. The live transaction executed under this first pilot demonstrates that tokenised deposits and assets can be traded effectively by institutions using smart contracts, and highlights the efficiency that institutional decentralised finance protocols can introduce to financial markets.”