Santander introduces a loan with grain token as collateral

Santander, a financial services company, has said it will offer a new token-based loan in Argentina based on agricultural commodities.

To implement this idea, the Spanish multinational corporation has entered into a partnership with Startup Agrotoken. The loans will be backed by crop-related tokens such as soybeans, wheat and corn.

Agrotoken team claims to have a “multi-chain infrastructure” with a platform built on Ethereum, Polygon and Algorand

Agrotoken produces stablecoin, each of which represents a ton of stored grain. These include soy (SOYA), corn (CORA) and wheat (WHEA). The value of each token is tied to the price of each item in USD. The company has already carried out a pilot project with manufacturers in Argentina, Santander said.

According to a Santander blog post, each ton of grain is checked using a system called PoGR, or Grain Stock Confirmation. The Agrotoken 2020 White Paper describes how farmers can use oracles to create a PoGR certificate, which is used as collateral for their so-called “crypto cereal”.

This token is issued and placed in the manufacturer’s wallet, and is available on all exchanges, DeFi applications and marketplaces that support it.

There are several other ways farmers can use a token on their site, including trading them for things like seeds, machinery and fuel, or obtaining a pre-financed credit card.