Key Takeaways:
Ten European financial institutions launched RL1, a member-owned blockchain cooperative in Luxembourg, after the underlying platform processed more than €700 million ($808 million) in transactions over three years of production use.
"RL1 gives each member equal decision-making rights over the network's governance and development, ensuring no single institution controls the infrastructure," the cooperative said in its launch announcement.
The founding members include ABN AMRO, Cecabank, Chartered Investment, Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale, DekaBank, DZ BANK, LBBW, Natixis CIB, SC Ventures and Seturion. The private, permissioned network is built on technology developed by German fintech SWIAT, which transferred ownership of the platform to the cooperative. Former SWIAT Managing Director Henning Vollbehr will lead RL1.
The launch comes as the Eurosystem's Project Pontes goes live in September, enabling onchain settlement of tokenized assets with central bank money including a wholesale CBDC. RL1 is designed to support digital money, tokenized bonds, collateral management and blockchain-based settlement — use cases that have driven more than 50 transactions on the SWIAT infrastructure to date. KfW and L-Bank continue to support the initiative, while RL1 said it is in discussions with additional institutions including NatWest about joining the network. By pooling infrastructure rather than running separate distributed ledger systems, the cooperative aims to reduce the fragmentation that has limited institutional blockchain adoption across Europe.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
