Farmers in the Brazilian state of Parana, facing difficulties getting traditional bank loans, have pioneered a new approach: they’ve turned their livestock into digital tokens. They listed tokens representing 10 dairy cows on Brazil’s stock exchange and successfully raised almost $20,000 in credit, demonstrating how tokenizing real-world assets like cattle can open up new financing options.
Brazil is pioneering a unique system of tracking dairy cows, which is being tested to help small farmers access loans. Local banks are making it harder for these farmers to borrow money, and this new system could provide a way to overcome those challenges.
Cowmed, a Brazilian agricultural technology company, is turning actual cows into digital assets. According to Thiago Martins, they do this by assigning each cow a unique code that’s tracked in real-time, effectively representing the animal as a digital token, CNNBrasil recently reported.
Martins and his company did not immediately respond to a CoinDesk request for comment.
According to Martins, digitizing these assets allows producers to formally register them with B3 as a type of movable property. This straightforward process provides a valuable financing opportunity, offering a new form of collateral when credit is tight in the agricultural sector.
Cowmed helps farmers use their cattle as loan collateral without needing on-site inspections. They do this by fitting cows with ‘Smarty Collars’ – AI-powered devices that track the animal’s health, activity, and location. This information is turned into a secure, digital profile linked to the farmer’s credit agreement.
Keeping careful records of each animal helps farmers avoid using the same cow as collateral for more than one loan. The system also allows farmers to replace a deceased animal with a healthy one, protecting both them and the lender.
As a researcher following Cowmed, I’ve observed they’re currently monitoring around 100,000 dairy cows on over 1,000 farms – representing a total herd value exceeding $395 million. We anticipate that up to 20% of these farmers may utilize their new tokenized financing approach. If adopted widely, this could potentially unlock approximately $77.6 million in new funding for the agricultural industry.
Experts predict a significant rise in the value of tokenized assets. McKinsey estimates the market will reach $4 trillion by 2030, while Standard Chartered forecasts $30 trillion by 2034. Currently, as of March 2026, the total value of these assets is around $25 billion.
2026-07-24 16:09