Blockchain group Tezos Foundation announced late on Wednesday, July 3, it was to partner with Brazilian investment bank BTGPactual and Dubai-based asset manager in a $1 billion security token offerings (STOs) deal.

BTGPactual, Latin America’s largest standalone investment bank and Dalma said in a press statement they planned to use the Tezos blockchain in a pipeline of STO deals worth a total of more than $1 billion for existing and prospective token issuances.

The two financial groups also plan to utilize the Tezos blockchain to tokenize a broad variety of investment products.

Tezos Overcomes Early Obstacles

Tezos finally launched its blockchain “betanet” in June 2018, having suffered several delays following its $232 million initial coin offering (ICO) in July 2017.

The near-year long delay following the ICO to launch was largely due to a conflict between founders Arthur and Kathleen Breitman and former Tezos Foundation president Johann Gevers over control of the source code and the $400 million in BTC and ETH raised during the project’s ICO.

When Gevers stepped down in February 2018, the platform still had to wait for regualtory checks before it could officially launch.

Investment Plans

BTG and Dalma said they aimed to take advantage of opportunities as governments introduce digitization initiatives that are set to lift global government blockchain spending to around $2.9 billion this year.

The companies said in a press statement:

Utilizing Tezos, a self-amending blockchain and smart contracts platform will encourage BTG Pactual and Dalma Capital to enhance their digitization efforts, by transacting in digital assets.

The Principals Comment

BTG has already launched its own STO, announced in February, and launched ReiBZ on the Ethereum network soon after.

Andre Portilho, BTG’s Partner responsible for the STO initiative, outlined the investment bank’s reasons for choosing to launch its latest initiative on the Tezos blockchain:

Utilizing Tezos, a self-amending blockchain and smart contracts platform will encourage BTG Pactual and Dalma Capital to enhance their digitization efforts, by transacting in digital assets.

Dalma’s chief executive Zachary Cefaratti added:

We see Tezos as one of the critical protocols for the burgeoning STO market, and look forward to securing future deal flow on the Tezos blockchain.

Adding the Tezos Foundation point of view, representative Hubertus Thonhauser said:

BTG Pactual and Dalma Capital have been leaders in implementing tokenization and blockchain solutions in the realm of traditional investment banking and asset management. We are encouraged by forward-thinking investment banks embracing blockchain as the market progresses to institutionalization and mass adoption.