Goldman Sachs boosts tokenization efforts with new partnership

The open source Daml smart contract language forms the core of the Daml application stack, a core tech by Digital Asset.

American investment bank Goldman Sachs, a backer of major cryptocurrency firm Circle, is strengthening its tokenization efforts by partnering with the blockchain startup Digital Asset.

The partnership enables Goldman Sachs to use Daml, a development framework created by Digital Asset to allow financial institutions to build and execute agreements on blockchain, the company announced Wednesday.

One of core Digital Asset’s technologies, Daml will help Goldman Sachs develop its own “end-to-end tokenized asset infrastructure” that would support multiple asset classes on private and public blockchains, the announcement reads.

Mathew McDermott, global head of digital assets at Goldman Sachs, said that Daml-based solutions could potentially accelerate blockchain-based digitization workflows across financial institutions and clients by interconnecting various infrastructures:

“As we continue to build out our tokenization capabilities, we need solutions that could rapidly capture the full complexity and diversity of assets at the heart of our business for both digitally native or tokenized traditional assets, and be interoperable across multiple blockchains.”

Implementing the eponymous smart contract language, Daml is a platform for building multi-party applications aimed at eliminating double processing and manual work. Some of the world’s largest financial institutions such as BNP Paribas’ securities arm deployed Daml-based smart contracts to develop real-time trade and settlement applications.

Digital Asset did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.

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Goldman Sachs previously claimed to be involved in some “extensive research” on tokenization in June 2019, with CEO David Solomon pointing out that global payment systems were moving to launch fiat-pegged cryptocurrencies known as stablecoins. The investment bank is known for investing in Circle, a principal developer of USD Coin (USDC), the world’s second-largest stablecoin by market capitalization after Tether (USDT).

After launching a limited Bitcoin (BTC) derivatives trading desk in May 2021, Goldman Sachs continued exploring crypto investment products, revealing plans for Ether (ETH) derivatives in June.