Archax to Launch Regulated Tokenized Asset Exchange

Archax, a U.K.-regulated cryptocurrency exchange and crypto custody service, plans to offer an exchange for tokenized assets such as funds and bonds by the end of the year, according to a Tuesday interview with Chief Marketing Officer Simon Barnby.

Barnby stated, “We believe the future is the tokenization of all real-world assets, and all traditional financial instruments are also moving on-chain.” Therefore, we are launching a regulated digital market for these tokenized assets.

He stated that the target market for the new exchange will be professional investors and institutions.

On a distributed ledger, tokenized assets are digital representations of the underlying assets.

According to a report published earlier this month by digital asset manager 21.co, the market for tokenized assets could reach as much as $10 trillion, or $3.5 trillion, in a bear scenario.

One instance: Euroclear, one of the largest securities settlement houses in the world, announced on Tuesday that it had settled its first digital note, a World Bank issue that raised €100 million ($106 million) for sustainable development.

Barnby stated that in 2020, the Financial Conduct Authority authorized Archax as a regulated exchange, broker, and custodian for digital and traditional assets.

In addition to tokenizing an abrdn market fund in euros, pounds, and dollars, the London-based company has “a pipeline of several hundred million dollars’ worth of funds coming in to be held in that tokenized money market fund and where people can receive a yield based on the money market fund,” he said.

Abrdn, the largest asset management firm in the United Kingdom, is the exchange’s most significant external shareholder after acquiring a stake in August last year.