Xavier Lavayssière

Billions in assets have already been tokenised, attracting the interest of startups, global banks and regulators alike. Yet fundamentally, ambiguities remain about the underlying legal operations. What does a token represent exactly? Token issuers are strategically exploring the full range of legal options available globally. One actor issues tokenised sovereign bonds using an ad hoc law in Switzerland. Another repurposes old German corporate law to associate a token with a specific right.

Most of the world’s central banks have already agreed they should help fight climate change, a critical challenge that necessitates reductions in both energy consumption, which is our focus here, and the carbon emissions associated with the energy consumed. To meet these aims, it’s important to pay attention to the energy used by the payment systems that central banks regulate and oversee.