Europe's Regulated Blockchain
Ten European Banks Launch RL1, a New Regulated Blockchain Network for Digital Finance
Anonymous
Key Points
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RL1's founding roster extends beyond ABN AMRO, DekaBank, and Natixis CIB to include Cecabank, Chartered Investment, Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale, DZ BANK, LBBW, SC Ventures and Seturion.
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SWIAT has processed more than 50 production transactions totaling over €700 million across three years of live operation, illustrating substantial pre-launch usage of the platform.
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SWIAT GmbH will continue to operate as RL1's technical operator and software provider after ownership transfer to the cooperative.
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RL1's development is framed within the EU MiCA regulatory context, highlighting an emphasis on regulated digital finance infrastructure rather than public crypto tokens.
Ten European banks launched the Regulated Layer One (RL1) blockchain network on July 28, 2026, forming a cooperative they say will become the standard infrastructure for tokenized finance in Europe. The founding members include ABN AMRO, DekaBank, Natixis CIB, DZ BANK, LBBW, Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale, Cecabank, Chartered Investment, SC Ventures, and Seturion, according to CoinTelegraph.
RL1 is built as a private, permissioned network — meaning no public crypto tokens and no speculative assets. It is designed purely for regulated capital markets: think digital bonds, on-chain collateral, and settlement between banks, reports Crypto Briefing.
A Cooperative Where No Single Bank Calls the Shots
RL1 is structured as a European Cooperative Society, registered in Luxembourg. Each of the ten founding banks holds equal governance rights. No single institution can dominate decisions. That equal-ownership model is a deliberate design choice, aimed at building trust across rival banks, according to CryptoNews.
Henning Vollbehr, the former managing director of SWIAT, leads the new cooperative. Discussions are already underway to add more members, including NatWest and other European institutions like KfW and L-Bank, reports CoinTelegraph.
SWIAT's Three Years of Live Transactions Power the Launch
RL1 does not start from zero. It runs on infrastructure built by SWIAT GmbH, which has already processed more than 50 production transactions worth over €700 million across three years of live operation, according to Value The Markets. That track record gives RL1 a running start that most new blockchain projects lack.
SWIAT is now transferring ownership of the network to the cooperative. But it will stay on as RL1's technical operator and software provider. Think of it as a contractor handing over the building while still running the boiler room, reports Crypto Briefing.
Tokenized Bonds and Digital Money, Not Crypto Speculation
RL1 targets four core use cases: digital money, tokenized bonds, on-chain collateral, and settlement between institutions. These are bread-and-butter banking functions, just moved onto a shared ledger. The network has no native token and issues no public crypto asset, according to TradingView.
The initiative is built to align with the EU's MiCA regulation — the bloc's landmark rulebook for digital assets. By operating inside that framework, RL1 positions itself as regulated infrastructure rather than a crypto experiment. The goal is to cut fragmentation caused by dozens of private bank ledgers that cannot talk to each other, reports CryptoNews.
European Banks Bet on Shared Rails Over Fragmented Ledgers
The core problem RL1 tries to solve is simple: every major bank has been building its own private blockchain. Those systems do not connect. That means banks still rely on slow, manual processes to settle trades across institutions. RL1 wants to replace all those silos with one shared network, according to Value The Markets.
The cooperative model mirrors how SWIFT was built — rival banks agreeing to share neutral rails. If RL1 can attract enough members, it could become the default settlement layer for European tokenized finance. Expansion talks with NatWest and others suggest that momentum is already building, reports Crypto Briefing.
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