ISDA Tokenized Collateral Guidance Note

Guidance for memorandum of law examining the validity and enforceability of collateral arrangements using the ISDA model provisions for tokenized collateral

The purpose of this guidance note is to inform how counsel may approach a legal opinion on the enforceability of collateral arrangements entered into under certain ISDA collateral documentation where the relevant collateral arrangement comprises tokenized securities and/or stablecoins (together, “Tokenized Collateral”).

This guidance note sets forth (i) a basic taxonomy of common tokenization structures and (ii) a non-exhaustive list of key issues to consider when analyzing the enforceability of collateral arrangements involving Tokenized Collateral.

This guidance note is intentionally high level and jurisdiction-agnostic. For that reason, the tokenization structures may not map directly into recognized existing legal categories in various jurisdictions. Nevertheless, they represent observed structures in the market and reflect important differences, including the key operational characteristics of each structure to the extent they are relevant to the transfer and settlement of Tokenized Collateral.

Documents (1) for ISDA Tokenized Collateral Guidance Note

The CPI Quandary

The recent US government shutdown didn’t just create weeks of political drama – it also left inflation-linked swaps dealers with a major headache: how should they determine an initial value for new trades given the US Bureau of Labor Statistics...

ISDA Response to HMT, BoE on UK CCPs

On November 18, ISDA submitted its responses to the Bank of England (BoE) consultation on ensuring the resilience of central counterparties (CCPs) and the UK Treasury’s (HMT) two draft CCP statutory instruments (SIs). These consultations form part of the update...

Doubling Down on Appropriate Trading Book Capital

Throughout ISDA’s 40th anniversary year, we’ve been reflecting on the quest for greater consistency and efficiency that underpins everything we’ve achieved since 1985. It was at the heart of the original efforts to bring greater standardization to the nascent derivatives...