SIX, Swisscom, Sygnum Bank and the start-ups Custodigit and daura have been working intensively over the past few months to build an ecosystem for digital assets. In this period, significant progress has been made on several fronts. Sygnum Bank became the world’s first digital asset bank to start operations in September, and is now taking a stake in daura. In November, Swisscom, together with its partners and three banks, succeeded in processing the first legally binding securities transaction using tokens. The technical basis for this being developed and operated by Swisscom in collaboration with daura, Custodigit and MME. “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,” says Mathias Imbach, co-founder of Sygnum Bank AG.
SIX is building a fully integrated financial market infrastructure for digital assets in the form of SIX Digital Exchange (SDX). This will offer companies the opportunity to issue digital security tokens. At the same time, SDX will allow trading, settlement and custody of these digital assets in real time and within a regulated framework. SIX has entered into a collaboration with R3 to develop this platform. The SDX prototype has been operating in a test environment since last September in collaboration with major international banks and is expected to go live next year.
daura offers unlisted companies a platform for a digital share register and the issue of security tokens. One digital token represents one newly created share. Functionally, the token is an unchangeable digital key created directly by the company. This enables SMEs to sell stakes in their company to new investors over the Internet. “The biggest beneficiaries of a functioning digital asset ecosystem are ultimately investors and companies,” says Peter Schnürer, CEO of daura. “Shares of Swiss SMEs can be tokenized in just a few hours and transferred and settled almost in real time in the partner network.”
“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’,” says Johannes Höhener, Chairman of the Board of Directors of daura AG and Head of Fintech at Swisscom.
Thomas Zeeb, Member of the SIX Executive Board and responsible for the entire trading and post-trade securities business, emphasizes: “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.”