Key Takeaways
A Brazilian farm secured a $20K loan by tokenizing ten cows, unlocking better credit options for agriculture.Smart collars actively monitor the digitized herd in real time, significantly lowering risks for creditors.This pioneering B3-registered transaction empowers troubled farmers to leverage live assets for financing.
Tokenized Cattle Loans Debut in Brazil
Tokenization is enabling more use cases, allowing innovative ways for small entrepreneurs to get financing in credit-deprived markets.
The Engendro Velho farm, located in Paraná, Brazil, received a loan of nearly $20K using a herd of 10 cows as collateral, using decentralized technology to digitize the information of each cow.
The farmer received the Financial Rural Product Note (CPR-F) valued at nearly $100K from BMP, a direct credit society, and the deliverables (each cow) were assigned to Target FIDC, a fintech company that registered the transaction using each animal’s data.
While this kind of transaction is not new, the tokenization and monitoring of the cows enables farmers to get a better deal, as creditors can examine the status of the herd at any time, lowering the risks associated with such a loan.
Humberto Brenner, a director at Target FIDC, stressed that this element can lead to a cow reaching up to 2.5 times the price it would have in similar non-monitored agreements. “Monitoring eliminates that uncertainty,” he declared.
Thiago Martins, CEO of Cowmed, told Valor International that this was the first transaction of its kind registered with B3, which is also preparing to launch tokenized stock trading, and that it opened a new opportunity for troubled farmers to access new credit sources using live collateral.
“We took the cow, which is a real, tangible asset, and turned it into a digital asset backed by a unique code monitored in real time. This digitization allows formal registration with B3 as a movable asset,” Martins explained.
The monitoring also allows each cow to be substituted by another if the animal dies, with the loan being valid as long as there is 120% collateralization.
“The transaction gives farmers access to credit with more attractive pricing and higher limits. We want to connect farmers and financial institutions through a new alternative,” he stated.
Cowmed provides solutions for live herd monitoring, helping farmers receive heat alerts, identify health changes, and track feeding trends. At the time of writing, it serves over 1,400 farms, with 900K+ cows connected to its network, which uses smart collars to monitor each animal’s data.
Martins expects up to 20% of its monitored herd to be involved in loan transactions in the next 2 years, with a credit volume of $78.5 million.
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