Asset manager abrdn has become the largest external shareholder in the UK’s first regulated digital securities exchange, Archax.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Archax was founded four years ago to provide access for institutional investors to blockchain-based digital assets, acting as a bridge to traditional capital markets.
It is the first and only digital securities exchange that has won approval from the UK Financial Conduct Authority with permissions covering trading, custody and brokerage.
The UK regulator’s’new disclosure requirements state that any person who decides to acquire 25% or more of an FCA registered crypto-asset firm must receive prior its approval before completing the transaction.
The exchange will launch later this year.
Stephen Bird, CEO, abrdn, says, “Blockchain technologies are inevitably going to form a big part of the future of financial markets. There is the potential to offer greater transparency, greater speed and less trading friction by using these nascent digital technologies.”
Abrdn plans to use Archax as a route through which investors can access new investment opportunities through digital securities, connect to existing offerings in a new way through tokenisation and facilitate a shift towards greater operating efficiencies through the adoption of new technologies like blockchain.
“With Archax, we will have a meaningful footprint in this fast-developing market – which is likely to evolve in a multitude of different ways that are relevant to our core businesses,” says Bird.
The volatility of the crypto market has not stopped asset managers from wanting to get a piece of the action.
Last week, BlackRock formed a partnership with Coinbase to offer digital assets to clients.
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