With BlockFold, Fireblocks covets the billions in tokenization

The digital asset management platform Fireblocks strengthens its expertise in projects from tokenization for financial institutions through the redemption of specialist consultancy BlockFold.

Joseph Chalom, a senior executive at BlackRock, is convinced that tokenization, “in the long term (…) will play a monumental role in the evolution of our ecosystem.” He is not alone in anticipating this scenario.

The financial giants are therefore laying out their pawns. Their ambition: to gain a foothold in a market estimated by BCG to be worth $16,000 billion by 2030. The crypto-native player Fireblocks completes its expertise in tokenization to support these future transformations. To this end, it has acquired BlockFoldan industry specialist.

A range of tokenization services

With BlockFold, Fireblocks is acquiring a company with dual expertise, since it develops smart contracts and also offers specialized consulting on advanced tokenization projects for financial institutions.

The aim of this acquisition is simple. The aim is for the platform to enhance its tokenization capabilities to provide “a complete layer of services”. In its toolbox: consulting, token customization, orchestration and distribution via the Fireblocks network.

By expanding its consulting capabilities, Fireblock runs the risk of worrying some of its regular partners. The company assures us, however, that it will continue to collaborate with Bitbond, Securitize, Securrency, Tokeny and others.

The combination of these internal and external skills should lead to “an open tokenization market”. Fireblocks does not intend to become a generalist, but to have the necessary capabilities for specific tokenization use cases.

BlockFold founders in key tokenization positions

BlockFold executives join the Fireblocks engineering team. They will collaborate with Web3 engineers and business consultants from the Financial Markets division. BlockFold co-founder Terence Siganakis becomes senior director, responsible for tokenization products.

Another co-founder, François Schonken, will take up the position of Senior Director and Tokenization Business Lead for Fireblocks. In a press release, the executive stresses the need for greater personalization on the part of major financial institutions.

Fireblocks’ new acquisition boasts a number of reference projects in the tokenization field (tokenized deposits, stablecoins, CBDCs, etc.), and particularly in the tokenization of assets such as carbon credits, real estate and investment funds.

The firm’s clients include the Innovation Centre of the Bank for International Settlements, the Swiss National Bank, the Banque de France, the Singapore Ministry of Finance, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and the National Australia Bank.

Bridging the gap between CeFi and DeFi, including on Tezos

Fireblocks’ acquisition of BlockFold will strengthen its tokenization capabilities and bridge the gap between CeFi and DeFi, enabling financial institutions like TASE to build robust, scalable infrastructures and support well-governed digital asset ecosystems,” reacts Orly Grinfeld, EVP, Head of Clearing at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

The Israeli stock exchange recently concluded a strategic partnership with Fireblocks. The platform now fully supports the Tezos network. Fireblocks customers can now store FA1.2 and FA2 tokens on Tezos.

They can also use Fireblocks’ Web3 engine to create new products and services on the Tezos public blockchain. Its foundation sees this as an opportunity to broaden institutional access to its DeFi and Web3 ecosystems.

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