Are Security Tokens Nasdaq’s Gateway Into Crypto?

Symbiont, the blockchain technology company which develops smart contracts and distributed ledgers for use in capital markets, has recently announced a successful round of funding totalling $20 million which has been led by Nasdaq. The two companies have partnered to bring compliant security tokens to the United States. This is just one way that Nasdaq is quickly coming into the realm of blockchain based-assets.

The Partnership

Over the past 12 months, we have seen one of the worst bear markets in the cryptocurrency industry has seen to date. With an increase in regulatory enforcement throughout 2018, the ICO side of things seems to have just simply, fizzled out.

Even though the ICO phase came and went quickly, security tokens have slid in to take its place. That’s what the current market atmospherics seem to suggest anyway, especially with Nasdaq’s increasing involvement in the blockchain space.

The smart securities blockchain startup, Symbiont recently announced a $20 million series B round of funding which is to be led by Nasdaq Ventures.

This is news that didn’t come as much of a surprise to many when the relationship between to the two came to light. Both companies are already working together to develop a new platform which is dedicated to offering regulated, compliant security tokens in the United States.

Despite all this, Symbiont isn’t Nasdaq’s way into the blockchain space.

Nasdaq powered exchange, DX.Exchange has allegedly tokenised existing shares of tech giants like Tesla, Apple and Facebook. They have created a tokenised form of ownership where they can be purchased and transferred with the benefits of distributed ledger technology. meanwhile, the actual shares remain in a secured account owned by DX.Exchange.

Furthermore, Nasdaq is looking to offer a Bitcoin contract in the early months of this year which is different from the other two which currently exist for digital assets. Those two are through Cboe and CME Group. As reported by The Tokenist, “Cboe currently uses one source to base its price of Bitcoin, while CME Group uses four. Nasdaq however, has plans to use 50 different sources from around the globe.”

Benefits

The benefits of a distributed ledger technology used in the creation and transfer of asset ownership continue to exceed their traditional sibling. As a result of this, there are many that claim that Security Token Offerings will not just go onto replacing the ICO but the financial burden of Initial Public Offering too.

What are your thoughts? Let us know what you think down below in the comments!