Banking giant HSBC leads Series A funding in Marketnode

Singapore-based digital market infrastructure firm Marketnode announced today that it closed its Series A investment round, led by global banking heavyweight HSBC and its existing shareholder Temasek. The company did not disclose the exact amount of the funding.

Marketnode said it will use the investment to expand neutral financial market infrastructure for key asset classes in the financial sector, including digital fixed-income and structured products. The company aims to build a multi-asset ecosystem starting in the Asia-Pacific, the release said.

“The marriage of Marketnode’s [financial market infrastructure] operational expertise and HSBC’s market leading global platform represents a unique opportunity to shape the next generation of trusted and neutral market infrastructure,” said Marketnode President Rehan Ahmed.

Furthermore, the collaboration will boost the launch of Fundnode, Marketnode’s investment fund infrastructure powered by distributed ledger technology, as well as future offerings of tokenized assets.

Marketnode, the digital asset venture founded by Temasek and SGX Group, has been collaborating with HSBC since 2020. The pair participated in Project Guardian, the asset tokenization initiative led by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, as well as other digital bond initiatives. 

Temasek is Singapore’s state-owned investment company, while SGX Group operates the Singapore Exchange.

Meanwhile, Singapore has been applying more regulations for crypto on top of its stringent licensing regime. Last month, Singapore authorities announced they are expanding the scope of companies regulated under its payment services rules to supervise digital asset firms in anti-money laundering and user protection.