SIX Stock Exchange May Issue Its Own Token, Says Exec

Switzerland’s top stock exchange SIX could issue a token to meet its goal of digitizing traditional assets, according to its head of securities and exchanges.

Thomas Zeeb told Finews in an interview published Monday that the SIX’s planned digital exchange will go live with a native token and an “initial digital offering" (IDO) service in 2020. That would follow a trial expected to be completed late this summer.

Zeeb said:

“We’ve got a number of organizations which want to launch tokenized structured products, real estate funds, and so on. But it could also be our own IDO.”

“Whether we begin with warrants, structured products, funds is up to our clients to decide. That is currently being finalized with our user-owners,” he added.

The executive further said that an IDO needs to comply with similar standards to an initial public offering or IPO.

By 2021, Zeeb expects the in-development SIX Digital Exchange (SDX) to be tokenizing traditional securities such as equities, fixed income and funds, provided the regulatory set-up is in place.

“Maybe the token will eventually replace the share one day,” he said.

However, the executive said the exchange is currently not comfortable with offering trading service in cryptocurrencies due to their anonymous nature and compliance risks. “The way bitcoin is currently set up and traded, it wouldn’t meet the criteria for SDX,” Zeeb said.

SIX is spending a “double-digit million amount” on building the SDX over two years, Zeeb added, as well as looking to hire 30 more people by the end of 2019 to bring SDX's total to 100 staff. The company is working with R3’s Corda Enterprise blockchain to build the platform.

The stock exchange revealed last June its plan to create a regulated exchange platform for digital assets, starting with stocks and then exploring other tradable instruments including fine art.

SIX image via Shutterstock