Ripple, the issuer of the sixth-largest cryptocurrency, XRP, said it’s seeking to integrate  Central Bank Digital Currency with DeFi primitives.

James Wallis, the vice president of central bank engagements and CBDCs at Ripple, said in an interview with Pymnts, that his firm is working on a project backed by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority to explore a CBDC-powered lending protocol supporting tokenized real estate as collateral.

“The internet of value is going to have central bank money as part of it and we want to be a facilitator for that,” he said.”Wallis said Ripple received hundreds of applications, including some exploring “lending protocols [and] how you can leverage some of the DeFi aspects of [crypto],” for the company’s CBDC Innovate hackathon, kicking off on May 15.