The Bank of Canada, along with some of the country's largest lenders, has finished testing the issuance, trading, and settlement of a tokenized bond on a distributed ledger. This pilot, known as Project Samara, involved a C$100 million bond issued by Export Development Canada. The experiment demonstrated how blockchain technology can handle the full lifecycle of bond transactions using digital Canadian dollars.
The Bank of Canada announced the completion of Project Samara, an experiment that tested tokenized bonds in financial markets. Export Development Canada issued a C$100 million ($73 million) security with a maturity of less than three months. This bond was sold to a closed group of investors and handled entirely on a distributed ledger platform operated by RBC.
Participants in the trial included RBC Dominion Securities, RBC Investor Services Trust, and the TD Securities division of Toronto-Dominion Bank. The platform enabled the creation of the bond in tokenized form, allowing for bidding, coupon payments, secondary-market trading, and redemption all within the same system. Digital settlement was tested using tokenized versions of wholesale Canadian dollars, which were created and managed by the Bank of Canada. These digital funds operated on the same ledger as the bonds, facilitating on-platform transaction settlements.
This initiative aligns with broader regulatory efforts in Canada. The federal government's November budget outlined plans for legislation on Canadian-dollar-backed stablecoins, with oversight from the Bank of Canada focusing on reserve backing, redemption policies, and risk management. Additionally, last month, the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) implemented a digital asset custody framework to enhance standards for holding crypto assets on trading platforms, aiming to mitigate risks such as hacking, fraud, and insolvency.
