Swiss securities exchange SIX and digital assets bank Sygnum Bank have acquired stake in tokenisation firm daura.
Financial details related to the stake acquisition were not disclosed. SIX will now join the collobartion that includes Sygnum Bank, Custodigit, Swisscom, MME and daura to strengthen the establishment of consistent technical standards and workflows in the Swiss ecosystem for digital assets.
Sygnum Bank co-founder Mathias Imbach said: “The new stake taken by SIX and Sygnum Bank in daura is representative of an even more effective joining of forces by important players in the Swiss ecosystem for digital assets. It will enable us to set sustainable standards for all.”
Daura allows SMEs to issue shares as digital security tokens
daura offers unlisted small and medium enterprises a platform for a digital share register and issues security tokens. One digital token represents one newly created share.
Such a digital token is an unchangeable digital key created directly by the company, enabling the SMEs to sell stakes in their company to new investors on the internet.
Over the past few months, SIX, Swisscom, Sygnum Bank, Custodigit and daura had been working to build an ecosystem for digital assets. Progress was made on several fronts, with Sygnum Bank becoming the world’s first digital asset bank, starting its operations in September.
Last month, Swisscom along with its partners and three banks, processed the first legally binding securities transaction using tokens. The technical basis for the transaction was developed and operated by Swisscom in collaboration with daura, Custodigit and MME.
SIX stated that it is developing SIX Digital Exchange (SDX), a fully integrated financial market infrastructure for digital assets.
The new platform is expected to offer companies an opportunity to issue digital security tokens. The platform will also allow for trading, settlement and custody of the digital assets in real time and within a regulated framework.
Being developed in collaboration with R3, the prototype of SDX has been in testing environment since last September and is expected to go live next year.
SIX executive board member Thomas Zeeb said: “As a digital exchange, SDX will form a central part of the future Swiss financial market infrastructure. However, each ecosystem also needs participants that take on different roles within the system.
“The investment in daura fits perfectly into our strategy of establishing just such an ecosystem for the Swiss financial center. The tokens of SMEs issued by daura can be traded, settled and held in custody seamlessly and in real time via SDX. This is another important step towards the Swiss ecosystem for digital assets.”
daura board of directors chairman and Swisscom fintech head Johannes Höhener said: “With the investment by SIX and Sygnum Bank in daura and future joint development work, we are standardizing the tokenization of Swiss assets. There is also the possibility that SIX, in addition to Swiss Post and Swisscom, may get involved in operating the private blockchain ‘Consensus as a Service’.”
