On July 28, 2026, the European blockchain initiative Regulated Layer One (RL1), an open, neutral, compliance-oriented network, was launched. The solution is specialized for institutional digital asset operations.
The project was established as a European Cooperative Society (SCE), which includes the following financial companies: ABN AMRO, Cecabank, Chartered Investment, Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale, DekaBank, DZ BANK, LBBW, Natixis CIB, SC Ventures, and Seturion. Henning Folber, who previously led the company SWIAT, was appointed as its head.
Furthermore, it follows from the release that the network is open to new participants. In particular, a possible next member of the cooperative is the organization NatWest, with whom negotiations are already underway.
The RL1 initiative is based on the SWIAT blockchain, and the company remains the software and service provider for RL1. The release indicates that the company's network was launched three years ago and has processed 50 transactions totaling 700 million euros during this time.
The participants themselves describe the initiative as "a collective European effort aimed at creating a foundation for a common distributed ledger under open and trustworthy governance."
The main goal of RL1 is to overcome the fragmentation of networks in the regulated financial sector and create a neutral, participant-owned, pan-European DLT infrastructure for tokenized assets, digital money, and next-generation financial services. SWIAT's software already allows for the implementation of some use cases, such as the tokenization of securities.
The initiative is a response to the growing demand in the EU for relevant solutions, as RWA solutions transition from pilot projects to scalable infrastructure in the local market. These include, for example, the Pontes and Appia projects.
The capitalization of this sector as a whole is also growing:
We previously reported that Standard Chartered experts expect the DeFi and RWA sectors' market capitalization to grow to $2 trillion.
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