Libre Is Live and Putting TradFi on Blockchain Wheels with Access to Funds from Brevan Howard and BlackRock

Tokenization brings better capital efficiency, fewer intermediaries—and through Libre, compliant issuance.

Polygon Labs
March 19, 2024
Institutional
Image source: Dribbble

tl;dr

  • Libre is live, a tokenization-specific ZK L2 built with Polygon CDK
  • Eligible investors now have accessed to tokenized funds by Brevan Howard and BlackRock
  • Institutions can leverage Libre to tokenize assets in a compliant way for better capital efficiency
  • Building out Libre Gateway, Libre is working to integrate other protocols and connect to the AggLayer

Libre is live, enabling seamless and compliant avenues for major financial institutions to tokenize assets. 

Built with Polygon CDK as a joint venture of WebN and Laser Digital, Libre is a Polygon CDK-powered L2 chain for institutions to easily and compliantly issue tokenized assets. 

In the past, we’ve spoken with Libre about how tokenization can unlock institutional adoption, while at the same time aiming to democratize access for market participants. 

Today, Libre enables access to a first crop of eligible investors who can now tap top-tier funds onchain, such as hedge funds from leading alternative investment manager Brevan Howard, and money market funds from BlackRock.

Below, we break down what this really means. 

How Libre enables tokenization for institutions

Libre is a customized blockchain built with Polygon CDK, retrofitting user experience for institutional adoption, and serving as the foundational infrastructure for the compliant issuance and distribution of tokenized assets.

The thesis of an “application specific blockchain” or appchain is that dedicating blockspace to a single kind of transaction—in this case, tokenized financial assets—makes more economic and compute sense than having to compete for blockspace from all the many varied use cases in a blockchain ecosystem. 

Libre solves this problem by building with Polygon CDK.

What does it mean for funds to have “blockchain rails”? 

Libre enables users to access tokenized alternative investment funds from Brevan Howard, and money market funds (MMF) from leading managers such as BlackRock. Here’s what that means. 

Where eligible, accredited investors with access to the Libre platform will be able to tap performant funds, but now on blockchain rails. A tokenized version of the asset will exist natively onchain. This eases the historically cumbersome and intermediated manner in which access to alternative investments usually operates.

Tokenization streamlines capital efficiency while at the sametime increasing transparency. With access to the quality BlackRock MMF, investors are ensured of the flexibility to come in and out of alternative markets when they choose.

Tokenization may have increasingly democratic effects on lowered minimum entry points to high-quality funds, with the wellcome side effects of opening these assets to a wider and deeper pool of possible accredited participants, creating a more liquid and flexible market. 

In short, TradFi is simply better onchain.

What’s up next for Libre?

Libre is building Libre Gateway to integrate multiple protocols so that eligible accredited, professional and institutional investors on other networks can easily access top-tier alternative investments and money market funds provisioned through Libre.

Working with core developers at Polygon Labs, Libre is also working on integrating to the AggLayer, in order to enable liquidity aggregation to Polygon protocols, where many institutions have begun to experiment with tokenization. The AggLayer is the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) moment for blockchain protocols: Whereas TCP/IP made it possible for different computer networks to communicate seamlessly around the world, the AggLayer is making it possible for different blockchains to plug into unified state and liquidity.

Libre is at the vanguard, offering a compliant way to tokenize alternative assets, with an eye on interoperability with other networks through Libre Gateway in the future. Composable institutional finance is around the corner.

Want to learn more? Be sure to follow Libre on X (formerly Twitter). And tune into the blog and our social channels to keep up with updates about the Polygon ecosystem.

The future of Web3 is aggregated.

Website | Twitter | Forum | Telegram | Discord | Instagram | LinkedIn | Polygon Knowledge Layer

More from blogs