In Brief:
- Cashlink Technologies GmbH said Aug. 31 it has struck a strategic partnership with Ava Labs, adding Avalanche to the networks its regulated securities infrastructure supports.
- The German firm has cleared €1 billion in transaction volume across more than 300 live issuances, with KfW, NRW.BANK, DZ Bank, Tradias and Helaba already on the platform.
- Avalanche becomes Cashlink’s third network after Polygon and Stellar, giving German institutions another venue for issuing token-based securities under BaFin supervision.
The deal
Cashlink Technologies GmbH said Aug. 31 that it is bringing its regulated securities infrastructure to Avalanche through a strategic partnership with Ava Labs. The Avalanche Foundation announced the tie-up on X the same day.
Institutional clients will be able to issue and manage token-based securities on Avalanche through Cashlink’s platform. Cashlink holds a BaFin license as a crypto securities registrar and custodian, which is what lets it sit between German capital markets and public chain settlement.
BREAKING: European tokenization leader, Cashlink, is bringing its institutional securities infrastructure to Avalanche.
Cashlink has over €1B in transaction volume, 300+ successful live issuances, and their infrastructure is already being used by industry giants including KfW,
CEO Michael Duttlinger pointed to Avalanche’s understanding of what regulated financial markets require as the reason for the integration, according to coverage of the announcement. Olivia Vande Woude of Ava Labs cited the commitment to secure infrastructure as central to the partnership.
What Cashlink brings
The platform has processed more than €1 billion in transaction volume across over 300 live issuances. That’s up from €850 million cited in April, when the Stellar Development Foundation took a strategic stake in the company.
Cashlink’s client roster runs through the German public banking system: KfW, NRW.BANK, DZ Bank, Tradias and Helaba. Its issuance history includes tokenized funds for Metzler, multiple bond issuances for KfW and single bonds for NRW.BANK and Helaba’s WIBank.
Most of that work has run on Polygon. Cashlink has consistently said it isn’t tied to one chain, and Avalanche now makes three.
The multi-chain play
The company is positioning itself as network-neutral. Each chain serves a different institutional audience, and clients can pick one without changing platforms.
Stellar’s April investment was framed the same way. Duttlinger said at the time that combining Stellar’s global reach with Cashlink’s European regulatory licenses would create an interoperable ecosystem.
For Avalanche, the deal extends a run of institutional capital markets work that already includes Citi, Wellington Management, WisdomTree, ABN AMRO, DTCC Digital Assets and J.P. Morgan Onyx.
Why Germany
Germany’s Electronic Securities Act has been in force since 2021. It created the legal basis for crypto securities to exist without paper certificates, and it allows DLT-based issuances to use a registrar instead of a central securities depository. Cashlink is the country’s most prolific registrar and holds two licenses, including one as a crypto custodian.
Luxembourg’s Blockchain Act IV pushed in the same direction. Between the two frameworks, European issuers can scale tokenized instruments with legal certainty rather than pilot exemptions.
The platform covers bonds, certificates and participation rights.
The KfW precedent
KfW issued two bonds in token-based crypto securities form in 2024 with Cashlink, totaling €150 million.
Both parties also took part in the European Central Bank’s DLT settlement trials. Cash settlement there used a fully DLT-based form of digital central bank money, putting money and assets on the same rails.
Delivery-versus-payment settled in a few minutes.
