OpenTrade to Launch Platform for Investing in Tokenized Financial Assets 

OpenTrade has raised $1.5 million in a funding round for its platform for investing in tokenized financial assets.

OpenTrade plans to launch its platform in the second half of the year and will use the new funds to scale its operations, the company said in a Thursday (May 4) press release.

“OpenTrade’s platform will provide users seamless access to a suite of on-chain structured financial products that are backed by investment-grade, liquid financial assets,” the company said in the release. “It is secured using time-tested, bankruptcy-remote legal structures that ensure investors are fully protected off-chain, while allowing them to continue to operate entirely on-chain.”

The platform will enable USDC-denominated investments, and its first products will include liquidity pools for U.S. Treasury Bills, investment-grade commercial paper and investment- grade supply chain finance products, according to the press release.

In the case of the supply chain finance products, USDC payments and financing will be embedded directly in B2B networks and platforms, making internet-native, on-demand financing available to businesses from non-bank liquidity providers, the release said.

The funding round was led by Sino Global Capital, with participation from Circle Ventures, Kronos Research, Kyber Ventures, Polygon Ventures and Outlier Ventures, per the release.

“Thrilled to back the OpenTrade team as they build the necessary infrastructure to bring real-world financial assets onto the blockchain,” Sino Global Capital Head of Investment Ian Wittkopp said in the release. “In the next decade, we expect that a majority of assets will be brought onto public blockchains. OpenTrade is leading this paradigm shift and we look forward to being day-one customers.”

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) recently reported that a “huge financing gap” is holding back international trade.

Steven Beck, head of trade and supply chain finance program at the ADB, told ANC in February that the gap is estimated at $2 trillion globally, up from $1.7 trillion three years ago, and is keeping underserved small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) from optimizing their place in trade, job creation and development.