Deutsche Börse Group, Swisscom and Sygnum, a Swiss and Singapore-based fintech company in the regulatory process to obtain a Swiss banking and securities dealer license, have entered into a strategic partnership.

The aim of this cooperation is to jointly build out and grow a trusted and regulatory compliant financial market infrastructure for digital assets.

Potential of digital assets hindered by lack of trust in infrastructure:

The tokenization of assets, the next major phase of asset digitization, has the potential to reshape global financial markets. In order to fully unfold its potential, the emerging tokenized economy needs a trusted, comprehensive and regulatory compliant ecosystem.

This integrated ecosystem around digital assets, developed by strong and experienced partners, will enable investors to tap into these new asset classes and accommodate to future client needs. The core elements of the solution will include issuance, custody, access to liquidity, and banking services – all leveraging Distributed-Ledger-Technology (DLT) in a regulatory compliant environment. The strategic partners will jointly grow and enhance these foundational elements of the digital asset ecosystem in alignment with the requirements of market participants.

The strategic partnership includes an investment by Deutsche Börse in Custodigit AG. The company was founded in 2018 as a joint venture by Swisscom and Sygnum. Custodigit AG provides a technical solution for the custody of digital assets for regulated financial services institutions. The integrated platform allows bank customers to manage the entire life cycle of their digital assets. As one of the main shareholders, Deutsche Börse will actively support the growth journey of Custodigit AG and its service offering.

Partnership for an integrated digital assets ecosystem – trust, compliance, innovation:

Furthermore, Deutsche Börse and Sygnum will become shareholders of daura AG. The company has developed a platform that uses Distributed Ledger Technologies to issue, securely transfer and register Swiss SME-shares, enabling non-listed companies to access the capital markets. As investors, Deutsche Börse and Sygnum will be actively involved in the companies’ future development.

Moreover, Deutsche Börse and Sygnum are currently conceptualizing the establishment of a further building block of the ecosystem – a listing and trading venue for digital assets in the Swiss market. Access to liquidity via an open, regulatory compliant marketplace is considered a critical element for building a scalable digital assets ecosystem.

Following obtaining a Swiss banking and securities dealer license from the Swiss regulator FINMA, Sygnum will provide comprehensive banking services such as custody, deposits, credit & lending, capital issuance via tokenization, brokerage and asset management within the digital asset ecosystem. The ecosystem established by the partners is based on Decentralized Ledger Infrastructure developed and operated by Swisscom, meeting security requirements of financial services institutions and allowing for scalability.

The first products and services provided by the new ecosystem for digital assets are expected to be launched in the course of 2019.

The transaction is subject to merger control clearance.

An overview of the digital asset ecosystem can be found here.