Gibraltar blockchain exchange positions for institutional investors

The GBX could well appeal to ICO issuers and those buying in the secondary market alike. The framework is built to take prospective ICOs through a traditional vetting process and due diligence/compliance and take them to market. Each ICO will be assigned a sponsor, which is a GBX-vetted guide to assist in bringing the project to market.

The GBX account holders will have access to two markets: a token issuance platform GBX-GRID as well as a digital asset exchange, GBX-DAX, that will apply the same standards of its traditional stock exchange, the Gibraltar Stock Exchange (a partner of Techemy Group).

The Gibraltar Blockchain Exchange (GBX) was recently granted a DLT licence by the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission (GFSC) and aims to be a world-leading institutional-grade platform. It recently jumped the gun on competitors by adding three fiat onramps, EUR and GBP alongside USD. The exchange launched to the public in July this year and now offers a list of crypto assets – the majors BTC and ETH alongside some niche offerings IOST, and ART.

The exchange’s native ERC20 token, RKT, will be replaced by the STACS coin which has the same utility as RKT – reduced listing and trading fees and membership incentives will all be paid in the native currency.

The STACS token will create a liquidity pool for large market incumbents – investment banks and broker-dealer exchanges – who wish to access the new asset class of tokenized securities. The proprietary STACS protocol has its own wallet and trading platform.

"Our firm belief in the principles of transparency, efficiency, and security have driven us to build a token sales platform that ensures the best utility for the wider trading community, giving them the most robust trading experience possible," says Nick Cowan, CEO of the Gibraltar Blockchain Exchange.

The platform is well positioned to benefit from the anticipated investor influx to the security token market in 2019 which has been dubbed "the next wave" of crypto.

What are security tokens?

The best way to think about security tokens, tokenized securities, and security token offerings is a more legitimate and regulated form of an ICO, open initially to accredited investors only that gives them early access to start up companies previously only available to venture capital firms. The potential of a security token bull trigger is clear, the economic and legal model is stronger with greater transparency and investor rights than were offered with the first wave of utility token ICOs.

The first wave of security tokens are most likely to be those of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO), with the second wave being tokenizing illiquid assets such as real estate and fine art.

Gibraltar, the new Malta

Gibraltar is fast becoming a hive of blockchain activity. Earlier this year, Gibraltar became the first jurisdiction to introduce a purpose built DLT regulatory framework. This means that firms in Gibraltar, that use DLT to store or transmit value belonging to others, now have to apply for a licence from the GFSC.