Ten dairy cows in Brazil's Paraná state were tokenized this week to back nearly $20,000 in credit on the B3 exchange. The pilot uses encrypted data from Cowmed collars to create digital identities for the animals.
The cows carried health, behavior and location data that turned them into verifiable collateral. This approach aims to help farmers who own livestock but lack land titles required by traditional banks.
The global financing gap for small businesses stands at $5.7 trillion to $8 trillion. Brazil's test shows the mechanics can work at small scale.
Similar registries exist in Ethiopia, Nigeria, Kenya and Pakistan. These systems record livestock as assets, yet they still need better links to insurance and health data for wider use.
