Driven by a demand for more efficient cross-border payments and access to greater liquidity, 2023 saw traditional finance (TradFi) embrace innovation fueled by digital assets and currencies.

It is estimated that 93% of the world’s central banks are now embracing innovation with CBDCs, while many of the largest financial market infrastructure providers and regulated financial institutions are executing digitization and tokenization programs. According to a June 2023 report from Bernstein, $5 trillion in assets could be tokenized on blockchain in the next five years, transforming how assets are issued, managed, transacted and redeemed.

At R3 we’re proud to be at the very forefront of these developments. In 2023, our leading distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform, Corda, continued to lead the future of digital finance, powering major industry ‘firsts’ including:

bank in the world to tokenize the ownership of institutional clients’ physical gold held in the bank’s London vault (HSBC)

uncleared crypto derivatives trade using Bitcoin (BTC) executed on Clear Markets regulated platform

native digital bond issued by the City of Lugano on regulated FMI, SIX Digital Exchange (SDX)

live digital bond issued on Euroclear’s digital financial market infrastructure (D-FMI) platform

wholesale CBDC to support on chain settlement of primary issuance on Six Digital Exchange (SDX)

and only, Hyperledger Lab, (Harmonia) to share code, designs and principles to establish regulated blockchain network interoperability

cross-chain repo swap PoC successfully completed with HQLA^x (Corda) and Finality (Hyperledger Besu)

CBDC-based transaction in Kazakhstan with the National Bank of Kazakhstan’s CBDC, the Digital Tenge

As regulated market participants increasingly leverage DLT in-production, R3’s Corda has emerged as the technology of choice in this era of digital transformation. Corda was designed for regulated markets from the ground-up, ensuring resiliency, scalability, security, and interoperability. R3 has a deep knowledge of financial services and collaborates with the industry to help accelerate the development of connected distributed solutions.

Testament to Corda’s success in powering the digitization of real-world assets and currencies for global regulated institutions, R3 took home five prestigious awards in 2023:

Best Blockchain Technology

CBDC Partner Initiative

Best Permissioned Technology Initiative

Most Innovative Use of DLT/Blockchain

IBSi Global Fintech Innovation Awards

Most Innovative Use of Blockchain in Banking

On top of these awards, R3 was highly commended by additional leading panels for its deep-rooted regulated markets expertise and ongoing excellence in the industry:

• Shortlisted in the banking, payments, and ecommerce category of the at the FT Tech Champions Awards
• Shortlisted for Blockchain Initiative of the Year at the Financial News Trading and Tech Awards
• Nominated for Best Enterprise Environment for Interoperability at the TradingTech Insight Awards (the final winners will be announced in February 2024, so watch this space)!

Gartner’s 2023 ‘Blockchain and Web3 Hype Cycle’ also revealed that R3 is at the forefront of digital transformation powered by blockchain, being recognized for its expertise in three critical categories: ‘Tokenization’, ‘Smart Contracts’, and ‘Layer 1 (L1) Blockchains’.

Additionally, in Onyx by J.P. Morgan’s recent report ‘The Future of Wealth Management’, R3 was acknowledged as one of the earliest firms laying the foundation for the transformation of global financial infrastructure in its Key Milestones in Traditional Financial Assets Tokenization overview. Since then, R3 has accelerated its onward journey in shaping the world of financial assets and fast-tracking tokenization innovation.

Our expert team has been at the heart of these achievements, and we were delighted to celebrate their individual successes and accolades over the past year. Financial News featured our Founder and CEO, David E. Rutter, on its lists of the Twenty Most Influential in Crypto and Twenty Most Influential in Trading and Technology. He was also included in the TabbFORUM Top 40 Innovators in Financial Markets. Likewise, our Chief Economist, Dr. Alisa DiCaprio, was named in the Financial News list of Twenty Most Influential Women in Crypto.

Heading into 2024 and beyond, we are excited to continue our mission of building a more open, trusted, and enduring digital economy.

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