This Tuesday, the 26th, during the Tokenization Day event promoted by B3, Humberto Costa, Director of Over-the-Counter Products and Digital Assets at B3, revealed that the exchange will launch a share tokenization front in the second half of the year.

"These will not be tokens aimed at selling to clients or investors at this initial moment. It will essentially be a faithful representation of traditional share custody in a tokenized format on a blockchain."

"The expectation is to launch the settlement structure in the first half, and then advance with the tokenization platform in the second half. The initial proposal involves more consolidated assets, such as shares, precisely to start with a segment already widely discussed by the market and international regulation," he said.

In an interview with Cointelegraph Brasil, Rodrigo Nardoni, Vice President of Technology at B3, highlighted that the idea is not, at this moment, to create a trading market for tokenized shares for investors.

"What we will have is a faithful replica of the traditional depository's database on a blockchain, represented in token form. In other words, we are not talking, at this initial stage, about trading these tokens on the market. It is merely a digital representation, on a blockchain, of the current custody of shares."

According to Nardoni, this serves, firstly, to prepare the depository's infrastructure for future possibilities.

"With the advancement of stablecoins, for example, an opportunity may arise to settle share transactions using digital currencies, in a more direct and atomic model. I'm not saying this will necessarily happen, but it is a possibility for which we need to be prepared."

The second point, according to him, is the simplification of reconciliation processes. Today, custodians, brokerages, asset managers, and administrators constantly need to exchange files with the market and with B3 itself to ensure that internal records are aligned with the central depository's official custody.

"Blockchain brings an important characteristic, which is to function as a single source of truth. When everyone starts consulting the same shared database, reconciliation becomes much simpler. This significantly reduces the need for information exchange and tends to bring important operational gains to all market participants."

According to Humberto Costa, the exchange's strategy involves creating an infrastructure capable of connecting market agents without B3 assuming typical functions of banks or currency issuers. The company's focus is on acting as a settlement, registration, and integration layer for operations involving digital assets.

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The initiative is part of a broader shift in the exchange's digital strategy. Initially created as a separate environment to explore cryptoassets and new technologies, B3's digital front has become incorporated into the company's strategic core following progress in regulatory discussions involving tokenization, Drex, and digital assets.

According to the executive, the evolution of discussions at the Central Bank of Brazil, the Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM), and industry working groups has helped provide greater clarity on how traditional infrastructure may interact with tokenized models in the coming years.

The exchange also participates in initiatives such as the regulatory sandbox, groups linked to Drex, and sector forums conducted by ANBIMA. The goal, according to Costa, is to follow regulatory maturation and contribute technically to the construction of market standards.

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Another central point of the strategy involves a new settlement infrastructure developed by the company. The platform is intended to function as a connection environment between different market participants and enable interoperability between traditional and tokenized operations.

"Technology cannot exist just for technology's sake. It needs to solve real problems, generate efficiency, and deliver value to the market," the executive stated.

Stablecoin and tokenized depository

Also present on the panel, Lucas Coutinho, Coordinator of Over-the-Counter Products at B3, revealed that the exchange's tokenization movement is directly connected to the next step of the strategy: the creation of a tokenized depository, planned for the second half of the year.

"B3 already plays a central role as a depository in the traditional market, and we want to bring this expertise to the tokenized environment, leveraging capabilities such as automated settlement, use of smart contracts, and parameterization of operational rules. We understand that there is a great opportunity for integration between the traditional market and the tokenized infrastructure. Therefore, we seek to develop this ecosystem collaboratively, bringing together partners, companies, and market participants to build use cases for both B3RL and the future digital depository," he said.

Asked about the current stage of the tokenized depository, the B3 representative stated that the infrastructure is still under development and should advance throughout the second half of the year.

According to him, the future proposal is to allow settlements within the network itself using the B3RL stablecoin, but the functionality is not yet operationally available.

"We are still in the development phase. The expectation is to complete this stage in the second half and, from there, share more details with the market and infrastructure participants. The idea, in the future, is to allow settlement directly within the network," he stated.

Coutinho also stated that B3 will also launch, still in the first half of the year, the exchange's stablecoin B3RL, developed using Polygon, which will be integrated into this tokenization structure.

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According to him, the project arises from the need to create a Real-denominated token with a strong governance structure, security, and institutional trust.

"We have incorporated robust compliance, KYC, AML, and anti-money laundering protocols, as well as security standards aligned with the best practices of the financial and digital markets."

Asked about the backing structure of the B3RL stablecoin, he stated that the digital asset's reserve will be composed mainly of cash and government bonds, following practices already adopted in regulated international markets.

According to the company, although Brazil does not yet have specific regulation for stablecoins, the project's design sought reference from regulatory models in other jurisdictions, including European Union rules, guidelines discussed in the United States, and parameters used by Hong Kong's monetary authority.

"The backing of B3RL will be basically composed of cash and government bonds, in line with what we observe in major international stablecoin regulations," the executive stated.

Despite the progress of the initiative, B3 acknowledges that tokenization still depends on important regulatory definitions. The discussion ranges from the legal classification of assets to settlement rules, custody, and interoperability between financial infrastructures.

For B3, the expectation is that tokenization will advance gradually and integrated with the traditional financial system, without an immediate disruption of existing structures. The company's assessment is that the technology should complement the current infrastructure before replacing consolidated market processes.