Tokenized cows just backed a farm loan on Brazil's stock exchange

A Brazilian first for real-world asset tokenization

Ten dairy cows on a farm in Paraná, Brazil, have made blockchain history. The animals became the first tokenized livestock ever used as collateral on B3, Brazil's main stock exchange, backing a loan worth roughly $19,400 (R$100,000). The deal was structured by fintech firm Target FIDC in partnership with agtech startup Cowmed, which supplied the monitoring technology that made it possible.

Each cow carries an AI-powered sensor collar that tracks health, behaviour, and location in real time. The collars monitor data including health and movement, converting it into an encrypted digital code that acts as a unique electronic identity for each animal. That digital identity is attached to the credit contract and registered on B3, allowing the herd to serve as collateral without requiring physical inspections.

Solving a long-standing problem in farm credit

The technology addresses a structural weakness in agricultural lending. Banks traditionally apply steep discounts to livestock used as collateral because verifying that an animal is alive and healthy is difficult and costly. Live, continuous monitoring removes that uncertainty and, with it, much of the discount that farmers have historically absorbed.

The timing matters. Judicial recovery requests in Brazilian agribusiness soared to 1,272 cases in 2024, up 138 percent from 2023, according to Serasa Experian. The root cause is borrowing costs: Brazil's Selic rate stands at 15 percent, the highest in nearly two decades. Against that backdrop, any mechanism that improves collateral quality and widens access to credit carries real weight for farmers under pressure.

Simple Token, Cowmed's financing partner, aims to provide R$200 million (roughly $32 million) to rural producers by the end of 2026 using tokenized livestock as collateral. Cowmed already monitors around 100,000 cows with a combined value of approximately $395 million, and projects that a fifth of that herd could be pledged as collateral within two years.

The deal also marks a meaningful expansion for the real-world asset (RWA) tokenization market, which has so far concentrated heavily on government bonds and financial instruments. Bringing working farm animals onto a regulated exchange as verifiable digital assets pushes the category into territory that few expected it to reach this quickly. B3 is separately planning to launch a broader tokenization platform and its own stablecoin in 2026 , suggesting the infrastructure for on-chain real-world assets in Brazil is developing fast.

Sources:
CNN Brasil: Vacas tokenizadas movimentam R$100 mil na primeira operação na B3
The Rio Times: Brazil's Farm Crisis Deepens as Bankruptcies Soar
Brazil Crypto Report: Tokenized livestock and Simple Token