Tezos scores billion dollar STO deal with investment bank

By Adriana Hamacher

BTG Pactual, the third biggest investment bank in Latin America, and the Dubai-based asset manager Dalma Capital announced plans today to use the Tezos blockchain to launch security token offerings. In so doing, the banks hope to “address a deal pipeline in excess of $1bn for existing and prospective token issuances,” the companies said in a press release.

Last February, BTG Pactual became the first major investment bank to officially launch a Security Token Offering (STO) with ReiBZ, which serves the Brazilian real estate industry. The token was launched using the Ethereum protocol, but will now be migrated to Tezos, according the announcement.

"While the bank remains protocol and technology agnostic, and will continue to utilize the Ethereum protocol, we see Tezos as a global player with a robust blockchain for asset tokenization," said Andre Portilho, the BTG's Partner responsible for the STO initiative. 

BTG and Dalma said they were planning to tokenize a range of traditional and alternative investments on the Tezos blockchain, including projects with global sports clubs and equity and debt interests.

Highlighted in the announcement was the fact that Tezos, is a “self-amending blockchain” and smart contracts platform.

While both platforms feature smart contracts, Tezos is validated by proof-of stake and has on-chain governance, as opposed to the off-chain, proof-of-work model followed by Ethereum (a comparison of the two can be found here.) The opposing methods have caused plenty of debate. 

Tezos has been billed as one of the early “Ethereum killers.” The startups’ co-founder, Arthur Breitman, told Decrypt last year that his rationale for the Tezos system was to have a “solid, safe ledger,” and that this is something you can’t achieve if there’s only one person in charge.

Tim Draper, CEO and Founder of Draper Associates, a prominent Tezos stakeholder said, "We are excited to see BTG Pactual and Dalma Capital making use of the Tezos blockchain–we are believers in the Tezos project and see a strong use case for security tokens.”

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