Germany’s capital markets have taken a significant step toward blockchain-based financial infrastructure after DZ BANK and KfW successfully completed the country’s first fully digital bond issuance using a public blockchain. The transaction represents a milestone in the modernization of Europe’s financial markets, demonstrating how distributed ledger technology (DLT) can streamline the lifecycle of securities from issuance to settlement. The bond was issued as a crypto security under Germany’s Electronic Securities Act, which allows digital securities to be recorded on blockchain-based registers rather than traditional paper certificates. [...]