Ten European banks hand tokenisation rails to new Luxembourg cooperative RL1
RL1 launches as a bank-owned cooperative built on SWIAT's network, favouring shared governance over a token as Europe's tokenisation push matures.
Ten European financial institutions have taken direct ownership of a shared blockchain network built for regulated capital markets, choosing a cooperative governance structure over the token-based models more familiar in crypto. Regulated Layer One, or RL1, began operating on 28 July as a European Cooperative Society registered in Luxembourg, with founding members including ABN AMRO, Cecabank, Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale, DekaBank, DZ BANK, LBBW, Natixis Corporate and Investment Banking, SC Ventures, Seturion and Chartered Investment.
The launch marks a shift in how European banks are approaching distributed-ledger infrastructure: rather than each institution running isolated pilots or backing a native token, ownership of the underlying network has been transferred to a jointly held cooperative in which each founding member holds an equal vote. Governance runs through a general assembly, a supervisory board and an operational management board, according to the launch statement reported by crypto.news.
Built on three years of SWIAT transaction data
RL1 inherits its technical foundation from SWIAT, the Frankfurt-based blockchain infrastructure provider whose production network operated for three years before ownership passed to the new cooperative. That network processed more than 50 transactions worth in excess of €700 million, both outlets reported, though those figures relate to activity completed under SWIAT rather than to the cooperative itself since its 28 July launch.
SWIAT will continue as RL1’s technology and operating supplier, providing blockchain infrastructure for token issuance, custody, collateral management and other digital capital-markets applications, while the cooperative now owns the network layer itself. Applications such as SWIAT’s German electronic securities registry services remain with SWIAT for now, though the company says they can migrate to RL1 without altering the underlying software.
“I am delighted to see so many leading financial institutions supporting the RL1 initiative. This strong commitment demonstrates the growing conviction across the industry that a shared, regulated digital market infrastructure is essential to unlocking the full potential of digital assets,” said Dr Timo Reinschmidt, CEO and CCO of SWIAT.
Vollbehr moves from SWIAT to lead the cooperative
Henning Vollbehr, formerly managing director at SWIAT, has moved across to lead RL1. “RL1 will serve as the connecting infrastructure for Europe’s digital financial market, enabling participating institutions to move from isolated tokenisation initiatives to an integrated, liquid, and scalable capital market ecosystem,” he said, according to the launch materials cited by Crypto Briefing.
NatWest is described on RL1’s participant page as “joining soon,” a firmer signal than the initial discussions flagged at launch, though no formal accession date has been published. KfW and L-Bank are supporting the network’s expansion but are not among the ten founding cooperative members. RL1 has also identified eight technical operators tied to the existing SWIAT network, including DekaBank, LBBW and SC Ventures, though migration of those validators to the new cooperative structure is still under way rather than complete.
No token, no product — a deliberately narrow mandate
Notably absent from the launch is any new token, public investment product, or regulatory approval tied to a specific security. The network remains private and permissioned, though membership stays open to additional regulated financial-market participants. That positioning distinguishes RL1 from consumer-facing crypto infrastructure and aligns it more closely with the EU’s regulatory push towards supervised, bank-owned tokenisation rails rather than open, token-incentivised networks.
Whether the cooperative model delivers the interoperability its backers describe will depend on further member onboarding, the migration of existing validators, and sustained transaction volume — none of which RL1 has yet quantified with published targets or a timetable.
Read more: USDC’s $73bn reserve pool underscores BlackRock’s hold on stablecoin plumbing
