Ant Group launches cross-border trade blockchain platform on the eve of the largest IPO in history

The Chinese technology company Ant Group introduced a blockchain platform for cross-border trade and financial services. Its launch came ahead of a planned IPO that is expected to be the largest in history.

The new platform is named Trusple. It is built on AntChain, the company’s own blockchain.

By automating key aspects of the payments process via smart contracts — such as order placement and tax obligations — Trusple is designed to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) sell their goods and services to customers overseas. The platform also reduces costs for financial institutions, enabling them to offer higher-quality services to businesses.

To streamline cross-border processes, Trusple has signed partnership agreements with major financial institutions such as BNP Paribas, Citibank, DBS Bank, Deutsche Bank and Standard Chartered Bank.

Ant Group is part of the Alibaba Group and operates the Alipay payments system.

In July, Ant Group announced that it would begin using the AntChain brand to promote its other blockchain solutions, including the enterprise DLT platform OpenChain.

Earlier it was expected that the company would conduct an IPO valued at $200 billion. However, earlier this week there were reports that Ant Group planned to raise a record $35 billion at a valuation of $225 billion.

The share listing is slated for October on both the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges. If successful, the company would surpass last year’s Saudi Aramco IPO, which raised $24.9 billion.

Earlier, Alibaba joined the list of entities authorised to distribute China’s national digital currency.

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