A unit of Ant Group is reportedly tying more than 60b yuan, or about $8.4b, of energy infrastructure and power assets to its blockchain, marking one of the most ambitious real-world applications of digital ledgers in China.
Bloomberg reported Tuesday that Ant Digital Technologies, the enterprise arm of the Jack Ma-backed fintech giant, has linked more than 15m devices such as wind turbines and solar panels to its AntChain platform.
By cutting traditional financial intermediaries out of the process, companies can use tokenization to raise money more efficiently. Instead of going through loan officers and underwriters, project operators can offer digital tokens directly to investors that represent fractional ownership or revenue rights.
The company has already taken steps beyond tracking. It has issued tokens tied to some of those assets and used them to raise capital. Financing worth about 300m yuan ($42m) has been secured for three clean energy projects through the new structure.
More than 9,000 of the company’s charging units were linked to AntChain. A few months later, it arranged over 200m yuan in funding for GCL Energy Technology by connecting its photovoltaic assets to the blockchain. In total, Ant Digital has already tied over 60b yuan of energy-related assets to AntChain, giving the initiative a scale that stands out in the global tokenization push.
Ant Digital has tested this model with offshore investors. In August last year, it helped Longshine Technology Group, a Shenzhen-listed energy firm, raise 100m yuan.
