The Monaco government is teaming up with Blockchain startup Tokeny Solutions in its first major step to becoming a regulated on-chain finance hub.  
It was announced on Thursday that the government had signed a Memorandum of Understanding for Tokeny to become its de facto blockchain-based tokenisation platform – a collaboration that will grant Monaco’s seal of approval to quality companies.
The endeavour will support Environmental and Social Governance (ESG) projects to be approved by the government.
“Monaco is moving towards its ambition to become a funding nation for progress with our STO framework,” said Frédéric Genta, Delegate for Digital of Affairs of the Principality of Monaco. “Two key milestones were achieved: a dedicated STO law was voted by the National Council and we are welcoming Tokeny to the Principality to operate our STOs.”
Tokeny Solutions is a Luxembourg-based fintech, which is currently setting up a subsidiary in Monaco.
The deal will support Monaco’s ambition to become the world’s first State to utilise the benefits of decentralised finance (DeFi) and its aim in becoming a Funding Nation for progress, a global market where quality projects are developed and financed.
“Most of the high-net-worth people in Monaco are buying real estate to park money,” said Luc Falempin, CEO of Tokeny Solutions. “The idea now is for investors and money in private banks in Monaco to invest in green projects.”
Alongside the passing of the dedicated Security Token Offering (STO) bill, the Principality of Monaco will establish a regulatory framework to encourage projects from around the world to finance themselves through issuing tokenised securities.
Investors benefit from a selection and approval process, and the Tokeny platform makes it very easy to manage digital assets with features like a recovery process, said Luc Falempin.

For projects looking to issue a token, these will have to first be presented to the government of Monaco, which will assess and approve them. The token issuer also needs to obtain a visa and set up as an entity in Monaco.

The first project to be onboarded to the initiative is Icebreaker, a production company of producer Sophokles Tasioulis and Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Luc Jacquet, whose repertoire includes the blockbuster documentary March of the Penguins.
“IceBreaker intends to leverage the blockchain technology to facilitate the financing of meaningful content production while retaining all associated rights, enabling new monetisation opportunities via films, exhibitions and the like,” said Luc Jacquet. “March of the Penguins and the subsequent Antarctica exhibition have demonstrated that the model can be a profitable one, making it appealing to investors.”
The regulatory framework is expected to come into force shortly.