Startup Hamilton Pio...

Startup Hamilton Pioneers Tokenisation of US Treasury Bills Using Bitcoin

By Jody McDonald July 05, 2024 In Bitcoin, Tokenisation, United States

Coins bitcoin, there are money, on table a bill of 10 dollars. The banknotes are spread on table a loose order of 10 dollars. Gold coins are crypto currency. — Source:AdobeStock

Tokenised RWAs have come to the Bitcoin ecosystem through a startup called Hamilton that tokenised US Treasury bills on Bitcoin’s Layer 2 platform.
The company describes the product as a milestone in merging traditional financial instruments with Bitcoin’s secure decentralised ecosystem.

Tokenisation Real-world asset (RWA) tokenisation startup Hamilton has tokenised US Treasury bills on a number of layer 2s in the Bitcoin ecosystem for the first time, including Stacks, Core and BoB.

Hamilton’s US T-bills tokenised product, known as HUST, is currently live on the three Layer 2s and will soon be available on Hamilton’s platform. The company said it would also launch soon on layer 2s including Arch Network, Botanix Labs, Bitlayer, Citrea, BEVM, and Mezo.

1/8 Exciting news 🚀

We have tokenized the first US Treasury bills (HUST) on leading Bitcoin Layer 2s: @Stacks, @Coredao_Org, and @build_on_bob!

Hamilton is building the first #RWA on #Bitcoin. We’re bringing financial independence on Independence Day 🎆🇺🇸🟧 pic.twitter.com/Dcjt7URb2M
— Hamilton (@Hamilton_RWA) July 4, 2024

The company said in a statement on social media:

We’re bringing transparency, stability, and liquidity to financial systems in emerging markets where high currency devaluation creates economic instability—all by leveraging the reliability of the US dollar and the security of Bitcoin.

Hamilton

Product to Target Institutions In Emerging Markets

Hamilton co-founder and CEO Mohamed Elkasstawi said HUST would be aimed at institutions across Latin America, EMEA, and APAC regions. He said recent crises in the banking and fintech space—such as the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse, and FTX’s failure—highlight the vulnerabilities of TradFi and underscore the need for decentralised solutions.

“In my decade-long journey serving startups and businesses in LatAm and MENA, I’ve seen firsthand the challenges these regions face with currency instability,” he said.

By offering tokenized US T-bills, Hamilton provides institutions with a better way to manage treasuries and preserve value, helping avoid the pitfalls that have plagued traditional finance.

Mohamed Elkasstawi, Hamilton CEO

RWAs Already Being Adopted At Scale, More Growth Predicted

A June report from consulting firm McKinsey said that with the increasing roll-out of tokenised bond/fund products, the benefits of tokenised RWAs were “being realized today, with the first at-scale applications transacting trillions of dollars of assets on-chain per month.”

McKinsey predicts the tokenised RWA market cap will reach $2 trillion by 2030, and potentially $4 trillion in a bullish scenario—driven mainly by a ‘first wave’ that includes tokenised cash/deposits, bonds, ETNs/ETFs, mutual funds, as well as loans and securitisation.