IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/elmark/v35y2025i1d10.1007_s12525-025-00753-3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Designing the future of bond markets: Reducing transaction costs through tokenization

Author

Listed:
  • David Cisar

    (University of Bayreuth, FIM Research Center)

  • Benjamin Schellinger

    (University of Bayreuth, FIM Research Center)

  • Jens-Christian Stoetzer

    (Branch Business & Information Systems Engineering of the Fraunhofer FIT)

  • Nils Urbach

    (Branch Business & Information Systems Engineering of the Fraunhofer FIT
    Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences)

  • Florian Lennart Weiß

    (Branch Business & Information Systems Engineering of the Fraunhofer FIT)

  • Vincent Gramlich

    (Branch Business & Information Systems Engineering of the Fraunhofer FIT
    Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences)

  • Tobias Guggenberger

    (University of Bayreuth, FIM Research Center
    Branch Business & Information Systems Engineering of the Fraunhofer FIT)

Abstract

Corporate bonds are an attractive option for corporate financing. However, current bond markets face many challenges and inefficiencies, resulting in high transaction costs (TAC). In recent years, technological advancements like blockchain technology have enabled the possibility of reducing TAC in bond markets. Even though practice experiments with such solutions, academic literature lacks generic design knowledge under the TAC lens to design blockchain-based bonds. Thus, our research follows the design science research (DSR) paradigm to design and develop a bond prototype using the Ethereum blockchain protocol. Our results highlight the capability of blockchain-based bond markets to reduce TAC in the three dimensions of asset specificity, uncertainty, and transaction frequency. Further, our research provides design principles to contribute to both practice and the academic discourse on developing blockchain-based bond markets with reduced TAC.

Suggested Citation

  • David Cisar & Benjamin Schellinger & Jens-Christian Stoetzer & Nils Urbach & Florian Lennart Weiß & Vincent Gramlich & Tobias Guggenberger, 2025. "Designing the future of bond markets: Reducing transaction costs through tokenization," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 35(1), pages 1-22, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:elmark:v:35:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1007_s12525-025-00753-3
    DOI: 10.1007/s12525-025-00753-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12525-025-00753-3
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s12525-025-00753-3?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bonds; Design science research; Transaction cost theory; Blockchain;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M15 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - IT Management
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:elmark:v:35:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1007_s12525-025-00753-3. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.