One of the latest venues to target the trading of tokenized securities is startup BPX which has now received a few authorizations from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). It has also applied to participate in the UK’s Digital Securities Sandbox (DSS).
The startup passed Gate one of the DSS alongside nine other entrants, with Euroclear as the only large incumbent. But in order to conduct any trading in a live environment it would need to pass Gate two.
BPX is particularly interested in enabling the trading of alternative funds including infrastructure and real estate funds, and enabling the assets to be used as collateral for lending.
Regarding the FCA green light, it has received approval as a Multilateral Trading Facility (MTF), Alternative Investment Fund Manager (AIFM), Cryptoasset Exchange and Custodian Wallet Provider.
“Our vision is a marketplace of best practice, modernised for institutions, offering access through a single connection to a broader range of hard-to-access alternative assets, such as infrastructure and real estate investment funds, whether traditional or tokenised—available for issuance, trading, and use as collateral,” said Dr. Robert Barnes, BPX co-CEO.
Barnes has a rather relevant résumé, including a nine year stint at the London Stock Exchange Group, latterly as head of securities trading and CEO of Turquoise. Before that, he was CEO of UBS MTF, spending almost 20 years at the bank. His co-CEO Ali Celiker has more of a fixed income background, but has spent the last 15 years as CEO of British Pearl, which enables fractional investment in real estate.
