According to an Aug. 10, 2018, press release, the World Bank and an Australian multinational bank are partnering to issue what is reported to be the first bond globally created, allocated, transferred and managed over blockchain. The "Blockchain Offered New Debt Instrument," or "bond-i," will be issued over a private blockchain built on top of the Ethereum network that has been reviewed by a major global technology company for its architecture, security and resilience. The blockchain platform will be co-hosted by the World Bank in Washington, D.C., and the Australian multinational bank in Sydney, Australia.

In another first, a token trading platform operating as an SEC- and FINRA-registered broker-dealer and alternative trading system recently launched a Reg D 506(c) offering of security tokens issued by a popular Colorado resort. Accredited investors can purchase "Aspen coins," which represent, indirectly, one share of common stock in the Colorado resort, including voting rights and rights to distributions. The Aspen coins are backed by the resort's assets. Purchases of Aspen coins can be made with U.S. dollars, bitcoin or Ethereum. In Canada, a Canadian multinational bank and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan announced the successful issuance of a fixed income transaction on blockchain. The Canadian bank sold CA$250 million of one-year floating rate deposit notes to the pension fund and mirrored the transaction on a blockchain platform.

According to reports, this week an exchange-traded note that has been trading on the Nasdaq Stockholm Exchange since 2015 is now being quoted in U.S. dollars. Trading the note will be similar to buying American depositary receipts, where investors will see a foreign-listed asset in U.S. dollars. Trades will be executed in U.S. dollars but will be settled, cleared and held in custody in Sweden.

Two foreign stock exchanges also made announcements about trading digital assets this week. The Stuttgart Stock Exchange (Gruppe Börse Stuttgart), the second-largest stock exchange in Germany, announced it is creating an end-to-end infrastructure for digital assets, to include cryptocurrency trading, initial coin offerings and a cryptocurrency custody service. And the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) signed a memorandum of understanding with a Toronto-based fintech company to create a digital assets trading platform that meets regulatory compliance standards. The JSE plans to include regulatory tools on the platform, including a tool to track market manipulation. Also this week, the prominent industry organization Coin Center released a report setting forth a proposed framework for securities regulation of cryptographic assets, cryptocurrencies and tokens.

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