The state development bank of North Rhine-Westphalia, NRW.BANK, has issued €100 million in two-year digital bonds on the Polygon blockchain — one of Europe’s first cases of using a public decentralized network for government debt issuance. The bonds were issued under the German eWpG law and registered through Cashlink, a BaFin-licensed platform.
The transaction was backed by Deutsche Bank, DZ BANK, and DekaBank, underscoring the institutional maturity of the framework. Polygon was chosen for its speed, Ethereum compatibility, and low fees — all critical factors for the public sector. The recent Heimdall 2.0 upgrade further enhanced reliability and transaction finality — now just 5 seconds.
European financial regulators are closely watching such examples — proof that digital bond issuance is no longer an experiment, but next-generation infrastructure. Blockchain adoption in the public sector isn’t coming via flashy slogans — it’s happening through reliable deals on working platforms.
