Virtu, M1X, Tradeweb Complete On-Chain Repo in 10 Minutes

Virtu Financial, M1X Global, and Tradeweb announced this week the completion of a repurchase agreement transaction executed entirely on a blockchain, using a digital sovereign bond as collateral. The companies stated the transaction, which settled on the Canton Network, was completed in under 10 minutes from start to finish. The repo involved the use of USDM1, a U.S. dollar-denominated bond issued on-chain by the Republic of the Marshall Islands. According to the joint announcement, the securities delivery, cash payment, and repurchase all settled atomically on the same network. The parties described it as the first known repo executed through a major institutional trading venue to combine natively issued sovereign collateral with fully on-chain settlement and no prime broker. This designation is a company claim, as no independent registry tracks all private blockchain repo transactions. A repurchase agreement, or repo, is a common short-term financing tool in which one party sells securities for cash and agrees to buy them back later, with the securities serving as collateral.