Grygo is the chief content officer for FTF.
The crypto currency phenomenon is almost moving too fast for anyone to sort out and yet remarkable things are happening.
For instance, tZERO and BOX Digital Markets have just created a joint venture to lay the groundwork for “the world’s first regulated exchange for trading security tokens,” which are electronic tokens defined as securities under U.S. law, the vendors say.
Officials from tZERO and BOX Digital explain that they previously “entered into a letter of intent to negotiate an equal joint venture that would operate as a facility of the BOX Options Exchange for the trading of security tokens in the United States.” The letter of intent led to the joint venture with tZERO and BOX Digital “sharing economic ownership and board representation equally.”
The effort is not a done deal as the companies will need approval from the SEC. If approved, the joint venture would become a facility of BOX Options Exchange, an established securities exchange.
For its part, tZERO will provide the technology “to create and operate the joint venture,” and it will supervise “the ongoing technology implementation, administration, maintenance and support,” officials say. BOX Digital is bringing executive leadership and regulatory expertise to the party.
In fact, the CEO of BOX Digital Lisa Fall will be the new CEO of the joint venture, if approved. “We will work closely with the SEC to create a framework for the safe and efficient trading of security tokens and our joint venture with tZERO marks a significant step that brings us ever closer to creating the industry’s first regulated exchange for security tokens,” Fall says in a prepared statement.
With two such well established companies putting skin in the crypto currency game, it begs the question: What are they foreseeing that others may be missing?
“There is no doubt that security tokens are the future of capital markets,” says Saum Noursalehi, CEO of tZERO, in a prepared statement. “tZERO and BOX Digital will create the first fully regulated security token exchange and fundamentally improve the way capital is raised and traded across different asset classes.”
Noursalehi adds that working with Box Digital will allow tZero to “complement our alternative trading system, already under development, with a separate, regulated platform.” This will enable the company to work with “security token issuers of all types, from micro-cap issuers to SEC reporting companies.”
So, I guess the future will include the digital world of electronic tokens and the more conventional one that most are familiar with.
“I believe the greater investing community does not yet understand the extraordinary changes blockchain is going to bring to global capital markets,” says Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock.com and executive chairman of tZERO, in a statement.
Byrne’s statement also brings up other concerns such as when the greater investing community will have to come up to speed. My guess is that if crypto currencies and tokens gain more ground, investors large and small will give this brave new world their full attention.
And, if crypto markets truly take off, how will they co-exist and interact with more conventional markets, and for how long?
We may yet find out.
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