Moody’s is moving onchain, bringing municipal bond credits ratings to Solana.
And that’s just the beginning, Moody’s tells DL News. It’s currently exploring other other blockchains — and other uses of blockchains.
Moody’s Ratings, one of the “big three” global bond credit agencies, completed its first onchain credit ratings trial in partnership with startup Alphaledger. On Solana’s testnet, municipal bond ratings were successfully tokenised.
“We have other proof-of-concepts in the pipeline where we are testing to make sure that what we built as a technology capability can actually be agnostic to any type of blockchain platform, network, or solution,” Rajeev Bamra, who heads digital economy strategy at Moody’s, told DL News, declining to elaborate due to the confidential nature of the projects.
In the Solana trial, Alphaledger turned a municipal bond into a digital asset that can be issued and traded on a blockchain — that’s what “tokenisation” entails.. A Moody’s credit rating was then linked to the bond by pulling data from the firm’s offchain systems through an API — a type of software connector — and publishing it onto the public blockchain network.
“We have to be a participant onchain, offering our data onchain, onchain ratings and research, and that’s really what we identified as a gap,” Bamra, said.
Currently, most credit ratings are typically accessible through proprietary software or specialised terminals. Institutional investors still face hurdles in accessing DeFi. A trusted firm offering accurate, tokenised credit ratings could help asset managers make informed decisions based on real-time data.
Previous trials
Moody’s push towards blockchain is not new. It has been in talks with Alphaledger and other similar projects for years, and recently tested multiple proof-of-concepts onchain, Bamra said.
“We’ve identified where the potential gaps may be when the ecosystem has scaled, and we are already working towards filling those gaps even before the ecosystem gets to that point,” Bamra said.
Moody’s worked with Untangled Finance in March to bring credit scores onchain on Polygon. This trial run, conducted on Polygon’s Amoy testnet, used zero-knowledge proof technology or ZKP to publish verified real-time credit rating data on a public blockchain without compromising the original data source.
ZKP is an encryption method that verifies certain information without exposing anything aside from the validity of the claim. It’s like being able to say someone’s an adult without revealing their age.
In March, Moody’s announced two onchain proof-of-concepts with the projects Metrika and Particula. For both, it evaluated risk indicators for digital assets on multiple blockchains, focusing on network health, governance, smart contract design, and other potential risks.
Tokenisation is part of a broader DeFi trend known as real-world assets, or RWAs. These assets — such as bonds, real estate, or commodities — are represented on blockchains in digital form and have become a focal point for traditional investors exploring opportunities in digital finance.
The tokenisation market is projected to reach $18 trillion by 2033 according to research by Boston Consulting Group and blockchain company Ripple.
