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Key Takeaways
- POSCO International’s U.S. arm worked with Olea and Intain to verify and record trade receivables on a Layer-1 network built on Avalanche
- The deal follows a separate pilot POSCO ran last month with LG CNS on a different blockchain, suggesting the company is testing multiple technical approaches
- POSCO, Olea and Intain plan further tests, including stablecoin-based cross-border settlement and digital treasury tools, though no timeline was disclosed
POSCO International, South Korea’s largest trading company, completed a transaction converting real-world trade receivables into digital assets on an Avalanche-based blockchain network. The deal, announced Tuesday, came one month after the company ran a similar pilot on a separate blockchain network.
Transaction Converts Invoices Into a Shared Digital Record
POSCO International’s U.S. arm worked with trade finance platform Olea and asset-backed finance technology firm Intain to complete the transaction. Intain used artificial intelligence to reconcile invoices, purchase orders, credit notes, and shipping documents before verifying and recording the receivables on its Layer-1 network, which is built on Avalanche.
Trade receivables represent money a company is owed after delivering goods but before a customer has paid.
Companies routinely borrow against those unpaid invoices to access working capital sooner, but that financing typically requires reconciling records held separately by buyers, sellers and banks, a process that can slow down access to funds.
Recording the receivable on a shared blockchain ledger creates a single, common record of ownership and status that all parties can reference. That structure is designed to reduce the paperwork burden involved in verifying a receivable’s authenticity and give companies faster access to financing against it.
Second Blockchain Pilot in as Many Months
The Avalanche-based transaction follows a pilot POSCO International ran last month with LG CNS to issue, transfer and settle tokenized receivables on a different blockchain network.
That earlier project also used receivables tied to live trade activity between POSCO’s overseas subsidiaries and their counterparties.
Running two separate pilots on two different blockchain networks within a month of each other suggests POSCO International is testing multiple technical approaches rather than committing to a single infrastructure provider at this stage. Neither pilot has been described by the companies as a permanent operational system.
POSCO International generated $22.2 billion in revenue from businesses spanning steel, energy and battery materials, and the company operates more than 80 overseas branches, giving it a large base of cross-border trade activity to draw on for further tokenization tests.
Move Reflects Tokenization’s Expansion Into Trade Finance
Tokenization efforts across the financial industry have concentrated heavily on funds and bonds to date. POSCO International’s transactions point to companies increasingly testing blockchain infrastructure for a wider range of uses.
This includes payments, collateral management and trade finance, areas where faster settlement and shared digital records could free up working capital that is otherwise tied up in slower paper-based processes.
Trade finance in particular has long involved fragmented recordkeeping across multiple institutions and jurisdictions, a structure that tokenization advocates argue blockchain-based ledgers are well suited to simplify.
Companies Plan Further Tests, Including Stablecoin Settlement
POSCO International, Olea and Intain said they intend to explore additional tokenized trade finance applications going forward, including stablecoin-based cross-border settlement and digital treasury tools.
Neither the scope nor the timeline for those future initiatives was disclosed in Tuesday’s announcement.
Whether either of POSCO International’s two pilots evolves into a permanent operational system will likely depend on how well each performs at scale and whether the company chooses to consolidate around a single blockchain network or continue testing multiple platforms in parallel.
