XBTO, Obligate and IQ-EQ, together with Eiffel Investment Group as investment adviser to the underlying strategy, complete a pioneering fully native digital asset issuance providing exposure to real asset-backed private credit investments

XBTO, Obligate and IQ-EQ, together with Eiffel Investment Group acting as investment adviser to the underlying private credit strategy, announce the successful completion of a native digital issuance of eNotesTM backed by a pool of short-term financings secured by underlying real assets across the UK, Germany, Spain and Ireland, dedicated to professional investors. The transaction reflects the combination of XBTO’s digital asset expertise, Obligate’s issuance and legal infrastructure, IQ-EQ’s high investor services standards and Eiffel Investment Group’s investment expertise in private credit.

The issuance was carried out through a Luxembourg securitisation vehicle, with IQ-EQ acting as corporate service provider and calculation agent, reinforcing a robust and independent governance framework aligned with institutional best practices. This structure demonstrates how blockchain infrastructure can be seamlessly integrated into the legal, operational and regulatory environment of institutional finance.

Morgan Lewis acted as legal counsel in connection with the transaction, advising on the legal structuring and documentation of the issuance and supporting its implementation within an institutional-grade legal and regulatory framework. The Morgan Lewis team advising on the transaction included Hubert de Vauplane and Diane Richebourg on contractual and regulatory matters, and Tristan Bonneau on the transactional and prospectus-related aspects of the issuance.

This transaction marks the launch of a pioneering fully native digital asset providing direct exposure to a diversified portfolio of asset-backed private credit investments, highlighting the growing convergence between blockchain infrastructure and institutional investment strategies.

A native digital architecture aligned with institutional standards

The solution provides access to a private debt strategy focused on real asset-backed financing, supported by Eiffel Investment Group’s expertise in its capacity as adviser to the underlying strategy. It reflects a new generation of financial instruments designed natively on blockchain infrastructure while meeting the stringent requirements of institutional finance in terms of governance, security and regulatory alignment.

Issued via the Obligate platform under Swiss law, the eNotesTM are created ab initio as digital securities and recorded directly on the Ethereum blockchain. Their lifecycle is administered through smart contracts, enabling automated execution, ensuring the integrity of ownership records and providing full traceability of transactions.

Security and operational resilience have been central to the design of the transaction. The infrastructure is built on DFNS, the core banking platform for digital assets, providing the wallets, key security, and policy-based governance behind the issuance, with multi-approver quorums and granular access controls enforced at the infrastructure layer and a complete, auditable record of every action.

Bridging digital capital markets and private asset financing

The issuance framework establishes a direct link between on-chain investor subscriptions and the financing of a pool of real asset-backed short-term loans, originated by Fiduciam and advised by Eiffel Investment Group bringing institutional private credit expertise into a fully native digital environment.

Subscriptions are processed natively on chain in EURC via smart contracts, before being converted into fiat currency and deployed into the underlying portfolio. Over the life of the instrument, cash flows generated by the assets are reintegrated into the digital infrastructure and distributed to investors through the same automated mechanisms.

This structure ensures alignment between on-chain execution and underlying asset performance, delivering transparency, efficiency and operational continuity.

Advancing the tokenisation of private markets

This transaction introduces a differentiated approach to tokenisation, combining:

• A fully native digital asset, rather than a tokenised wrapper of traditional securities
• Direct exposure to a diversified portfolio of asset-backed private credit investments
• An institutional-grade framework, integrating robust governance, compliance and security standards
• A transaction combining the digital asset expertise of XBTO and Obligate, the high investor services standard of IQ-EQ with the private credit investment expertise of Eiffel Investment Group, acting as investment advisor to the underlying strategy

It reflects the emergence of scalable, secure and compliant digital investment solutions tailored to the needs of institutional investors.

Quotes

“This milestone demonstrates how digital assets can be structured to meet the expectations of institutional investors, particularly in terms of security, transparency and operational robustness,” said Karl Naïm, Group Chief Commercial Officer and Senior Executive Officer Middle East at XBTO.

“This collaboration highlights the strength of our platform in enabling the issuance of fully compliant, institutional-grade digital securities,” said Tobias Wohlfarth, Chief Business Officer at Obligate.

“This transaction reflects our ambition to remain at the forefront of innovation in private markets,” said Nicolas Jaïs, Director at Eiffel Investment Group. “This demonstrates how native digital infrastructure can provide access to high-quality private market investments while maintaining the governance, transparency and investment discipline expected by professional investors. We believe this marks an important step in the convergence of private markets and digital assets”.

“Supporting Eiffel in this pioneering transaction underlines IQ-EQ’s commitment to enabling innovation within robust governance frameworks. By combining our expertise in corporate services and reporting with Eiffel Investment Group’s expertise as adviser to the underlying strategy, we help ensure that groundbreaking digital issuances like this one can be executed with institutional-grade reliability and transparency,” added Joanne McEnteggart, Global Head of Debt, Capital Markets and Corporate at IQ-EQ.