Good News: Major Stock Exchange Operator to Offer BTC, ETH in 2019

Boerse Stuttgart Group, the operator of Germany’s second largest stock exchange, announced they will launch their end-to-end infrastructure for digital assets in the first half of 2019 in partnership with solarisBank, a Berlin-based fintech company that offers Banking as a Platform services with its German banking license.

Although an exhaustive list of available cryptocurrencies is yet to come, the stock exchange intends to offer “established cryptocurrencies” such as Bitcoin or Ethereum at first, later adding other coins at their discretion. The exchange is also currently developing their own initial coin offering (ICO) platform, and the tokens created on top of that platform will also be tradeable on the exchange.

The crypto trading venue will be open to both private and institutional investors and facilitate order opportunities comparable to securities trading, the official press release reads.

As for regulations, they intend to regulate as a multilateral trading facility (MTF) – a European regulatory term for a self-regulated financial trading venue, an alternative to the traditional stock exchanges where a market is made in securities, typically using electronic systems.

The stock exchange giant’s venture into cryptocurrencies has beenfirst announced back in August, although at the time the announcement did not specify when the new infrastructure may be completed. Back then, the company said that, “On this basis we can offer central services along the value chain for digital assets, all under one roof,” adding that they want to “help to promote acceptance of digital assets.”

Boerse Stuttgart is a floor-based exchange in Europe with trading across asset classes such as stocks, derivatives, bonds, exchange traded funds, and soon digital assets. With a trading volume of EUR 81 billion (USD 93.87 billion) across all asset classes in 2017, Boerse Stuttgart is ranked tenth among European exchanges.

solarisBank was one of the first technology companies in Europe to procure a German banking license, which operates as an API-accessible banking business. The company enables businesses to offer fully digital and fully compliant financial services to their end-customers. The company has in June of this year launched the solarisBank Blockchain Factory and extended its range of services to become “the specialized infrastructure partner of choice for companies in the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry.”