What are digital assets?

Blockchain consists of a list of records, called blocks, that are securely linked together using cryptography. Blockchains are often immutable, meaning entries cannot be modified. This provides a single source of truth to market participants while enabling the creation of solutions that do not rely on a single entity.

Tokenization is the process of turning a real asset into a digital token that exists on a blockchain, and enables the transfer of economic value or legal rights without intermediaries.

Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) are digital liabilities of a central bank that can be used for payments. CBDCs are managed on a digital ledger, which can be a blockchain, although it doesn’t have to be. Retail CBDCs are available to the general public while wholesale CBDCs are only available to eligible participants, usually banks.

A cryptocurrency is a digital currency secured with cryptography and generally issued on a blockchain, and a stablecoin is a cryptocurrency whose price is pegged to a reference asset.