Tokenisation: Assembling the building blocks of an institutional digital assets marketplace

Abstract

The tokenisation of securities using distributed ledger technology (DLT) is blurring the traditional distinction found in the level of automation in capital market services in the public and private markets. In the last three years, security tokens have helped dozens of issuers and both individual and institutional investors based in dozens of countries manage their private securities in a compliant and fully digital way. We take a long-term view in that all assets will ultimately be tokenised and that this will reduce frictions in asset issuance, servicing and ownership transfers, and remove barriers to accessing capital markets and financial innovation. The authors are in a unique position to witness the transformation in the way business-to-business (B2B) consensus is established in traditional capital markets, as well as to be a pivotal part of the buildout of the nascent decentralised capital markets infrastructure. The authors share their thoughts based on the initiatives they have undertaken so far, in the hope that this invites thoughtful discussion from experienced industry participants.