Blockchain unicorn Fireblocks acquires Australian tokenization startup BlockFold
Blockchain unicorn Fireblocks acquires Australian tokenization startup BlockFold
The Israeli company is estimated to have paid $10 million for the smart contract development and consulting firm which specializes in advanced tokenization projects for financial institutions
Blockchain unicorn Fireblocks has acquired Australia-based BlockFold, a smart contract development and consulting firm specializing in advanced tokenization projects for financial institutions. The acquisition, which is estimated at $10 million, will help Fireblocks provide clients with a complete service layer that includes advisory, token customization, orchestration, and distribution through the Fireblocks Network.
Fireblocks will continue collaborating with its tokenization partners Bitbond, Securitize, Tokeny, and others.
According to the company, Fireblocks has seen rapid growth in demand from customers, with a 350% increase in tokenization projects between 2022 and 2023, and 75% of tier-1 financial institutions exploring tokenization via its platform.
“BlockFold’s expertise fills an important gap in the market, tailoring bespoke solutions for some of our most sophisticated customers and prospects in the banking and financial institutions space,” said Michael Shaulov, Co-founder and CEO at Fireblocks. “We already speak a common language in understanding these customers’ requirements at an architectural level. Bringing BlockFold’s expertise in-house means that we can better serve tier-1 financial institutions to quickly and seamlessly bring tokenization projects into production and new assets onto the blockchain. In addition, we can continue to innovate and expand our offerings and tailor our approaches as the market continues to mature and evolve.”
Since its first bank-issued stablecoin for ANZ in March 2022, Fireblocks has delivered more than 10 stablecoin projects and is in active conversations with more than 25 banks globally who are exploring the creation of bank-issued stablecoins or tokenized deposits. Within the next three years, Fireblocks expects the value of tokenized money on the blockchain to reach $450 billion.
In May 2023, Fireblocks enabled the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and the Israeli Ministry of Finance to tokenize and settle a government bond following a live auction with 5 domestic and 7 global banks. As the sole issuers of Israeli government bonds, both parties now have a credible path to tokenize Israel’s government debt market, which is worth $15 billion annually. Fireblocks expects the value of tokenized bonds on the blockchain to reach $400 billion within the next three years, targeted to hit $1 trillion by 2028.
BlockFold’s clients include major institutions such as the Bank of International Settlements, Swiss National Bank, Banque de France, Singapore’s Ministry of Finance, Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, National Australia Bank, and ANZ Bank, many of whom are also Fireblocks customers.
The Blockfold team is integrating into Fireblocks, with the engineering team joining the Web3 engineering staff and the business consulting team joining the Financial Markets group. In addition to co-founder Francois Schonken, who has been appointed as Senior Director, Tokenization Business Lead at Fireblocks, co-founder Terence Siganakis has been appointed Senior Director, Head of Tokenization Products.
