The bell at Euronext Amsterdam did more for XDC Network than mark a new ticker. It placed XDC on a major European stage and plugged a trade-finance blockchain straight into public markets
The move ensured that digital asset rails could now be placed inside familiar exchange infrastructure, which is indeed a massive boost for professional investors. Beyond that, it also marked a new phase for XDC itself, where trade-finance use cases start to rely on tools that fit institutional rules (and not just crypto-native platforms).
This quick guide explores how the XDCN ETP and the 21Shares partnership connect blockchain rails with traditional market access.
XDCN and the 21Shares partnership
XDCN sits at the center of this story because it wraps XDC into an exchange-traded security that institutions can actually buy.
21Shares, one of the largest crypto ETP issuers in Europe with a long track record in physically backed products, issues the 21Shares XDC Network ETP. The product tracks the price of XDC and holds the underlying asset on a one-to-one basis in institutional-grade cold storage with BitGo as custodian.
XDCN trades under ticker XDCN and ISIN CH1464217285, with a 2.5% management fee. It appears on Euronext Amsterdam and Euronext Paris, with USD quotes on Amsterdam and EUR quotes on Paris. 21Shares also lists the product on SIX Swiss Exchange and BX Swiss, which extends reach across Swiss and EU venues.
The ETP uses physical replication rather than swaps, sits under Swiss issuer 21Shares AG, and is UCITS-eligible and AIF-eligible in several EU markets, subject to local fund rules.
For funds, wealth managers, and corporate treasuries, XDCN removes operational headaches around wallets, private keys, and token accounts on crypto exchanges.
They route orders through usual brokers and custodians, and settlement flows through standard market infrastructure.
Market shift in trade finance
So, as you can see, XDC exposure feels like any other exchange-traded note in the portfolio, not just a separate crypto project.
That distinction matters because under the hood, the market still relies on archaic infrastructure. For instance, trade finance in many corridors still runs on paper, manual checks, and siloed databases. Similarly, bills of lading, letters of credit, and invoices move through fax, email, and couriers more often than not. And each of those extra hand-offs slows settlement, raises error risk, and traps capital in long, opaque supply chains.
That’s why it’s not uncommon to see fraud and duplicate financing slipping through those cracks, ultimately affecting smaller exporters.
In contrast, tokenization and digital rails can significantly improve the status quo. For example, instead of relying on paper documents and batch reconciliation, you can represent trade instruments as digital tokens that update in near real time. Ownership records in such setups can sit on shared infrastructure instead of scattered spreadsheets.
You could also handle settlements using regulated stablecoins and tokenized deposits. This way, value moves as fast as the data that describes it. To cut a long story short, a setup like that can cut manual steps and reduce dispute risk, while freeing working capital earlier in the trade cycle.
Sponsored SponsoredAndre Casterman, board member and chair of the Fintech Committee at the International Trade and Forfaiting Association, captured this shift in blunt terms:
“In today’s trade finance world, where paperwork delays cost billions and fraud erodes trust, XDC Network stands out as a simple, powerful fix. It’s a hybrid blockchain built for speed and security, turning slow paper documents — like bills of lading — into digital tokens that verify instantly and settle in seconds using regulated stablecoins like USDC… By blending traditional finance’s reliability with blockchain’s efficiency, XDC enables faster, fairer trade that fuels economic growth.”
XDC as infrastructure for regulated finance
The trade finance bottlenecks we discussed earlier set a clear bar for any base network. You need speed, predictable costs, and a way to protect sensitive data, without breaking how banks already move messages and money.
XDC Network leans into that brief through a hybrid design. The public chain handles transparency and settlement, while private subnetworks keep confidential data off the open ledger (but still link back to the same infrastructure for finality and audit).
Under the hood, XDC uses a delegated proof-of-stake model that supports roughly 2,000 transactions per second, with confirmation in about two seconds and near-zero gas fees. That mix suits high-volume flows and makes fee behaviour easier to forecast for trade desks and treasury teams. Energy use also stays low compared with proof-of-work networks, which matters more as institutions face stricter ESG scrutiny.
Additionally, XDC aligns with existing financial plumbing in another way as well. Its messaging layer follows ISO 20022, the standard that underpins many cross-border payment and securities systems.
That choice lets banks, custodians, and trade platforms map XDC-based flows to formats they already use for SWIFT, core banking, and ERP. The result is a base layer that treats regulated finance as the starting point, not an afterthought. This fit makes XDC a natural candidate for tokenized trade assets and RWA platforms that sit under compliance teams instead of outside them.
Real-world use on XDC
The design shift we have discussed above already shows up in live transactions on XDC, not only in slide decks.
For instance, Tradeteq, a World Economic Forum member, uses the network for TRADA tokens, which package pools of trade finance receivables into fungible, regulated security tokens.
SponsoredFund managers and other investors then access this asset class through a familiar securities format instead of bespoke bilateral deals, with XDC as the record of ownership and transfer.
Similarly, commodity markets provide a second proof point. ComTech Gold issues CGO tokens on XDC, each tied to one gram of physical gold stored in DMCC-approved vaults in Dubai, with a Tradeflow warrant over every bar.
That mix links on-chain units to specific bullion and vault controls, so holders can treat CGO as digitized gold rather than a loose claim. The project also holds Shariah certification, which makes it accessible in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
Meanwhile, on the capital markets side, Archax now works with XDC to issue tokens for regulated money-market funds and other RWAs from managers such as BlackRock, Fidelity, abrdn, and State Street.
VERT Capital also plans to place a large private-credit program on the network.
Overall, these structures pull the earlier themes together:
- Trade and credit exposures move into standard, regulated wrappers
- XDC provides the speed, data model, and cost profile that traditional systems lack.
Regulation and forward view
So, with XDC’s real-world applications established, the critical missing piece now is the legal rail that sits under them. In Europe, that rail comes from the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, or MiCA.
Sponsored SponsoredThe rules for stablecoins already apply, and the wider framework for crypto-asset issuers and service providers now covers the whole EU.
MiCA sets clear duties around reserve quality, disclosures, and supervision for asset-referenced tokens and e-money tokens. At the same time, it also defines how firms obtain authorization and passport access across member states.
Products such as XDCN sit on regulated exchanges inside that environment. That context gives institutions a clearer view of who issues the product, how the underlying asset sits in custody, and which rules apply if something goes wrong.
On the other side of the Atlantic, the GENIUS Act now defines a federal framework for U.S. dollar stablecoins. The law requires full backing with cash or short-term Treasuries, sets supervisory powers for federal agencies, and opens a path for banks and other licensed entities to issue payment stablecoins.
Again, that shift matters for networks that support trade finance and RWA flows. That’s because a growing share of all settlements could rely on regulated dollar tokens rather than unregulated instruments.
Ritesh Kakkad frames this next phase in simple terms:
“The convergence of TradFi and DeFi is no longer a distant vision, it unfolds right now, as milestones like the XDC Network’s ETP listing on Euronext show. Platforms like XDC build the infrastructure to tokenize real-world trade finance assets, integrate decentralized efficiency with traditional compliance and institutional trust, and help unlock trapped liquidity for global commerce.”
The road ahead in 2026
To cut a long story short, the ETP on Euronext shows that XDC now sits in the same market frame as bonds and equities. As discussed earlier, MiCA in Europe and the GENIUS Act in the United States give that step a legal base instead of hype.
On that foundation, XDC supports tokenized trade assets, commodity structures, and regulated fund wrappers that match how banks and asset managers already work.
So, all said, the question now shifts from “is this real?” to “does this fit my mandate?” The obvious answer is — the tools exist, but the decision about size and timing sits on your desk.
A word of caution, though: progress in this space depends on regulators, custodians, and market adoption moving in step. It’s not unusual to see rules changing and new oversight reshaping how digital asset securities operate across regions.
So, anyone entering this market should monitor compliance updates closely and treat early participation as exposure to innovation (alongside its evolving risks).
