Credit Suisse Creates Ethereum-Based Shares in Swiss Resort

Credit Suisse is taking part in the tokenization of a Swiss resort using the Ethereum blockchain.

According to an announcement on Tuesday, Credit Suisse has tokenized shares in adventure sports company Alaïa SA, which owns chalets and a hotel in the Swiss Alps.

Credit Suisse is working with Switzerland-based crypto custody and trading platform Taurus to create tokens in accordance with Swiss Capital Markets and Technology Association (CMTA) standards. The law in Switzerland was updated in February to allow tokenized securities to trade on a blockchain with the same legal standing as traditional assets.

“The blockchain is recognized in the law as a valid ledger whereby you can register shares,” Taurus co-founder Lamine Brahimi said in an interview, adding:

“I think that’s a very important move for large regulated institutions because now there’s zero ambiguity.”

The next step for the bank is to organize a private placement for Alaïa tokenized shares. The shares will begin to trade on the Taurus Digital Exchange (TDX) in the first quarter of next year to provide liquidity to Alaïa investors and employees. (Earlier this year, Taurus received a license from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority to run a marketplace for digital assets.)

It’s not the first time the realm of tokenized real estate has played host to blockchain-based shares in a ski resort.

In 2018, regulated trading platform Templum touted tokenized shares in the St. Regis Aspen Resort in Colorado, so-called “Aspen coins,” which later found their way onto the Overstock-owned tZero trading platform. More recently, a resort in Indonesia was tokenized and auctioned using non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

“I think what’s interesting is that this project is not just about tokenizing shares and booking them in the system,” Brahimi said. “It’s also making a private placement, i.e. capital increase, based on tokenized securities, with the objective to provide secondary market trading for those. And both the bank and Alaïa are committed to doing so.”