EIB issues CBDC-denominated digital bond on Ethereum blockchain

The European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Union’s lending arm, announced Wednesday that it issued its first-ever bond on the Ethereum blockchain. 

The bond, issued yesterday, is worth €100 million ($121 million) and will mature on April 28, 2023. Money from underwriters — those assuming risk by buying into a bond — is represented as a central bank digital currency (CBDC) on the Ethereum public blockchain. 

Investment banks Goldman Sachs, Banco Santander, and Société Générale will oversee the sale of the bond, which will be governed under French law. 

According to the EIB, benefits from such bond digitalization include reducing fixed costs and costs from intermediaries, improved market transparency, and quicker settlement speed. "These digital bonds will play a role in giving the Bank a quicker and more streamlined access to alternative sources of finance to boost finance for projects across the globe," EIB vice president Mourinho Félix said in a statement.

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MK Manoylov has been a reporter for The Block since 2020 — joining just before bitcoin surpassed $20,000 for the first time. Since then, MK has written nearly 1,000 articles for the publication, covering any and all crypto news but with a penchant toward NFT, metaverse, web3 gaming, funding, crime, hack and crypto ecosystem stories. MK holds a graduate degree from New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP) and has also covered health topics for WebMD and Insider. You can follow MK on X @MManoylov and on LinkedIn.