SIX Digital Exchange (SDX), from Switzerland, has announced its launch by performing its first fully regulated blockchain transaction involving 150 million CHF using blockchain rails.
It had received 2 licenses from the regulator FINMA in Switzerland last year and after almost a year of preparation and development, it has been able to launch only now. Switzerland has been at the forefront of the developed world trying to regulate cryptos and being generally receptive to what the crypto industry has to say. This has helped it to forge a good relationship with various crypto companies which have shifted their base to the country over the last few months due to the favorable regulations. Many of the other countries are still not sure on whether they want to regulate the industry as yet and even if they decide to do that, they aren’t sure of how to go about it. Switzerland may provide the lead for such regulators to take a leaf out of their book and put in the work to understand the various aspects of the industry and seek to regulate it in a manner that befits its status as something that can change the entire financial landscape in the coming years.
“The first issue of a tokenized bond on the SIX Digital Exchange as well as its listing and placement in the market proves that the forward-looking distributed ledger technology (DLT) also works very well in the highly regulated capital market,” said Thomas Zeeb, global head of markets at SIX.
As part of the launch, a blockchain bond comprising two exchangeable parts was issued by the exchange. The first, digital part would be listed and traded on SDX and held by the SIX Digital Exchange while a second, traditional, part would be listed and traded on the original SIX Swiss Exchange. The digital part is worth CHF100 million of the total issue volume, with CHF50 million allocated to the traditional part. With Switzerland emerging as a big financial centre in the post-Brexit world, it is likely that such products would be loved by the investors in the coming months and should see strong demand from the small and large investors alike. With regulators also keen to grow the industry, it does present a good case for crypto businesses to focus on in this region.
