23 June 2025
Next phase of Project DAMA unveils institutional blueprint for digital asset servicing
Deutsche Bank, Memento Blockchain, together with Axelar Network developer Interop Labs have published a ‘litepaper’ presenting their Digital Asset Management Access (DAMA) 2 project.
This sets out a blueprint for a next-generation tokenisation platform, built on public blockchains with regulatory alignment and privacy as core design principles. The three-layered blockchain architecture combines a secure public Ethereum base (Layer 1), a privacy-enabled institutional zero-knowledge roll-up (Layer 2), and a user-friendly application layer (Layer 3) to deliver scalable, compliant, and interoperable digital asset servicing.
Designed to accelerate the adoption and servicing of tokenised funds, stablecoins and other real-world assets, the platform shows how asset and wealth managers, token issuers and investment advisers can create and service tokenised assets, distributing them securely and compliantly across blockchain ecosystems and financial networks.
“Using powerful technologies to create business value doesn’t have to involve unnecessary user complexity”
“This litepaper explains the thinking behind a solution that the Project DAMA team have designed to enable familiar workflows and eliminate long learning curves to help digital fund management adoption,” said Boon-Hiong Chan, Innovation Lead, Securities & Technology Advocacy at Deutsche Bank. “Our efforts prove that using powerful technologies to create business value doesn’t have to involve unnecessary user complexity, nor trade-offs with compliance.”
The new publication is a follow-up to the February 2023 flow report – Simplifying digital fund management and investment servicing, which explored the findings following the completion of the Project DAMA proof of concept that sought to address the challenges associated with launching and accessing digital funds.
The World Economic Forum has identified asset tokenisation as one of the most transformative forces in modern finance, with multiple possibilities to unlock deeper and newer benefits to investors and the industry.1
In 2024, global asset managers broke new ground by launching tokenised money market funds and crypto exchange-traded funds, while sovereign and corporate bond issuers continued to leverage blockchain for benchmark issuances. Stablecoins, once seen as potential sources of systemic risk, have gained broader acceptance as manageable financial instruments. In parallel, new operating models – particularly in collateral management – have emerged to support tokenised assets.
This momentum has carried strongly into 2025, buoyed by a softening of the previously restrictive US regulatory stance on crypto. Looking forward, the opportunity for the industry is likely to further accelerate – as US$84trn in global wealth shifts toward digital-native generations by 2045.
The litepaper, therefore, is timely, offering a clear framework for engaging digital-native demographics – including Millennials, Generation X, and Generation Z – who are significantly more likely than Baby Boomers to hold crypto or other digital assets.2
“Tokenisation is moving out of the sandbox and into production, but challenges still remain – from vendor sprawl to siloed liquidity across blockchains, which create barriers for both investors and asset issuers,” said Sergey Gorbunov, co-founder of Axelar protocol and CEO of Interop Labs. “DAMA 2 will offer institutions a compliant path to enter the digital assets space and scale securely across all blockchains without limitation.”
The litepaper captures extensive research with potential asset issuers, led by Deutsche Bank, and lays out the unique design of DAMA 2, including:
- Blockchain-as-a-service model that minimises up-front investment.
- User-friendly application interface layer with an app store to access fund smart contract.
- Privacy-enabled Layer 2 smart contract environment, built by Memento Blockchain with zkSync’s ZK Chain technology.
- Managed token issuance across multiple blockchains via Axelar Network.
“The future of digital asset servicing demands infrastructure that is not only scalable, but inherently compliant and interoperable,” said Nicola Lanteri, CEO of Memento Blockchain. “By anchoring DAMA 2 on the ZK-powered layer, we provide the deterministic control institutions need – while preserving the openness, modularity, and composability of public blockchain ecosystems.”
The DAMA 2 MVP mainnet (non-commercial) launch is targeted for the second half of 2025. Read the full litepaper here. Memento Blockchain and Axelar Interop capabilities are separately commercially available.