Casey Wagner

<div id="highlights-block_63204f9297890" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The best time to revamp is during crypto winter, Symbiont said</li>
 <li>The enterprise technology infrastructure provider has partnered with Vanguard, Citigroup, Nasdaq and Franklin Templeton Investments</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Following a tumultuous summer for crypto markets, enterprise technology infrastructure provider Symbiont has unveiled a “brand refresh,” designed to show Wall Street blockchain technology is here to stay.&nbsp;



Symbiont, founded in the early days of crypto in 2013, launched its first enterprise blockchain product in 2019 with Vanguard. The company also partners with other big names in banking, including Citigroup, Nasdaq and Franklin Templeton Investments.&nbsp;



The enterprise blockchain product allows for smart contracts to take over data normalization for Vanguard’s passive index funds, allowing for orders to be executed autonomously. <a href="https://www.symbiont.io/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Symbiont</a> currently manages about $2.3 billion of Vanguard’s passive indices value through that network, Mark Smith, CEO and co-founder of Symbiont, said.



On a backdrop of uncertain macroeconomic conditions, the looming <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/dreams-of-forked-ether-have-defi-dapps-preparing-for-nightmare-scenarios/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ethereum Merge</a>, and increasing regulatory scrutiny, Symbiont’s facelift could not come at a more opportune time, the team said.



Symbiont does not use public Ethereum or other permissionless protocols, calling them “unsuitable for enterprise use,” in <a href="https://www.symbiont.io/post/public-vs-permissioned-blockchains" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a company blog post</a>.



Now is the time “to better educate the industry on the entire digital asset/blockchain ecosystem on the heels of a crypto winter,” Smith said.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">“This is a time of pronounced market cycles that maturing industries face, and the next phase is difficult to predict; however, what is crystal clear is the importance of blockchain technology as an emerging technology that is underpinning the digital asset industry and here to stay for the long haul,” he said.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</blockquote>



​​Vanguard and State Street now use Assembly, Symbiont’s distributed ledger technology, in the margin calculation process for a live trade of a 30-day foreign exchange forward contract.



“We identified blockchain as a viable fintech solution to solve financial market infrastructure challenges dating back to 2013, have worked with regulators to identify the long-term opportunity for smart contracts, and are now in a new phase of development as highlighted by the timely release of our Symbiont Assembly platform,” Smith said.&nbsp;



The company has plans to expand its current Wall Street partnerships, it said.&nbsp;



“Symbiont continues to gain traction in bringing blockchain market infrastructure to financial institutions with partners Vanguard and State Street and is on target for a broader roll-out of its smart collateral product later this year,” Silvia Davi, Symbiont’s chief marketing and communications officer, said.



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Enterprise Blockchain Provider Targets Wall Street Partners With Brand Refresh

<div id="highlights-block_62050d46d5186" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Traditional financial institutions are interested in adopting crypto technology, and infrastructure providers are having a hard time keeping up</li>
 <li>Institutions like Vanguard and State Street are already using smart contracts for settlements</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



According to enterprise technology infrastructure provider Symbiont, Wall Street is already leaning heavily into crypto technology, and the adoption is just beginning.



Symbiont, founded in 2013, launched its first enterprise blockchain product in 2019 with Vanguard. The product allows for smart contracts to take over data normalization for Vanguard’s passive index funds, allowing for orders to be executed autonomously.



<a href="https://www.symbiont.io/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Symbiont</a> currently manages about $2.3 billion of Vanguard&#8217;s passive indices value through that network, Mark Smith, CEO of Symbiont, said.



“We are looking at the technology as a toolkit to solve existing problems,” said Smith.&nbsp;



“From day one, it was really a question of how do we use this technology, in an appropriate way, for regulated entities to use it in a compliant fashion.”&nbsp;



The <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/?s=infrastructure" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">infrastructure</a> provider also partners with other big names on Wall Street, including Citigroup, Nasdaq and Franklin Templeton Investments, and hopes for more collaboration opportunities in the future, Smith said.&nbsp;



In its most recent partnership, Symbiont worked with Vanguard and State Street to bring smart contracts to traditional financial transactions.&nbsp;



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">“We&#8217;ve been at the tip of the spear from an enterprise blockchain perspective looking at blockchain smart contract technology as tools to solve real world problems in regulated financial markets,” said Smith.</blockquote>



Vanguard and State Street now use Assembly, Symbiont’s distributed ledger technology, in the margin calculation process for a live trade of a 30-day foreign exchange forward contract.



Vanguard, as a global asset manager, has many international funds, meaning Vanguard must have the available foreign currency on a certain date and time to settle those transactions. To hedge against the risk of the timeframe in which Vanguard needs to settle in a foreign currency, the firm creates forward contracts or swap contracts.



With Assembly, Vanguard and State Street, which act as the bank counterparty, can negotiate the transaction in a secure, encrypted manner through the blockchain, Smith said.



“The smart contract calculates exactly how much collateral you need based on an initial margin calculation that&#8217;s agreed upon amongst the two counterparties,” Smith said. “Historically, each side calculates margin on their own, and then they reconcile on an overnight basis or every two days manually to determine if both sides got the right margin variance calculation.”&nbsp;&nbsp;



Symbiont, and other companies in the infrastructure space, are having a hard time keeping up with growing interest in crypto technology from financial institutions, Smith said.



“Demand has actually outpaced expectation, not just from a Symbiont perspective, but I think if you look at the other market participants, they are all looking to expand,” he said. “Now the question becomes how do those entities onboard and become customers, that&#8217;s the next phase of how enterprise blockchain starts to really take hold in these applications.”



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