BlockState is offering its own tokenised shares to demonstrate how token-based issuances of financial products can be used to flexibly address institutional, professional and retail investors to participate in a public equity round.
The Swiss security tokenisation provider BlockState (www.blockstate.com) today announces the issuance of its own digitised company equity on the BlockState platform. BlockState’s digital company shares will be on public sale until July 12, 2019.
BlockState is offering its own tokenised shares to demonstrate how token-based issuances of financial products can be used to flexibly address institutional, professional and retail investors to participate in a public equity round. The team is backed by international investors from the finance industry and advisors from leading companies including Airbnb, Google, Credit Suisse and Pictet. Patrick Storchenegger, Swiss notary and board member of the Ethereum Foundation, acted as the legal architect.
BlockState’s mission is to enable easier access to capital markets for issuers and investors. The company does this by creating digital representations of existing financial products. These so called security tokens are digital representations of existing regulated financial products. Using blockchain technology, security tokens can be programmed to enable shareholder rights like ownership, dividends and voting without the need for costly intermediaries. Security tokens can be issued at low cost and split indefinitely to allow smaller investment tickets. The easy and instantaneous transfer between parties paired with a growing demand for tokens on the issuer and investor side holds the promise of more efficient secondary markets.
“We are very excited to be able to issue our own company company equity using our own technology. This really demonstrates the value of tokenisation for SMEs and other assets that are not easily investable, because it solves exactly these problems. Anyone with an internet connection and €200 can participate in this equity round that otherwise would have been privy to VCs and other institutional investors.” Paul Claudius, co-founder and CEO of BlockState says. “We are especially happy to be able to work together with so many talented teams from the finance and blockchain ecosystems like Solaris Bank and R3/Corda to build an integrated, new financial ecosystem based on blockchain powered access infrastructure.”
A new capital market ecosystem is emerging
In addition to providing the legal and technical foundation for digital asset issuance, BlockState is building a bridge between the emerging digital asset ecosystem and traditional financial markets. To do this, the team is building a network of financial service providers such as private banks and secondary markets for digital assets to directly connect issuers with investors and is working together with progressive banking and technology partners: Solaris Bank will enable access to token-based investments using traditional banking infrastructure. While BlockState operates on the Ethereum blockchain, it is set up to accommodate interoperability with R3/Corda, which is the preferred blockchain solution for institutional investors and financial intermediaries.