The Luxembourg Stock Exchange (LuxSE) has admitted for the first time financial instruments registered on a public Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) on LuxSE’s Securities Official List (LuxSE SOL).
The three series of security tokens admitted for trading on LuxSE SOL are digital covered bonds (OFH Tokens) and structured products issued by Société Générale’s digital assets arm, Société Générale - Forge (SG - Forge), natively on the Ethereum and Tezos public blockchains respectively.
This admission takes place within the context of the acceleration of market digitalisation using blockchain technology, notably through the adoption of the EU Pilot Regime, which is expected to enter into force in 2022, The new rules will permit the processing of security tokens through market infrastructures in compatibility with applicable EU regulations within a transitional period.
Native security tokens issued on DLT allow for a fully digital issuance process and lifecycle. Due to their innovative characteristics, native security tokens have the potential to significantly improve efficiency and transparency in financial markets and make transactions safer and more resilient – all while offering benefits similar to those of financial instruments issued in a conventional way.
Since April 2019, Société Générale and its subsidiary SG - Forge, dedicated to digital assets, have structured several native security tokens issuances deployed on DLT for their clients. The last in time being the European Investment Bank’s (EIB) €100m digital bond issued in 2021.
In April 2021, the French bank issued a four-year €5m (US$5.9m) autocall euro medium-term notes (EMTN) which followed the first SG covered bond security token worth €100m on the Ethereum blockchain, settled in euros in April 2019, and a second covered bond security token worth €40m issued by Banque de France in May 2020.
Leonteq rolls out crypto market index
Leonteq has announced a new addition to its crypto assets offering in a securitised format with the Leonteq Crypto Market Index.
The Leonteq Crypto Market Index tracks the financial performance of currently 11 crypto assets and the weighting of the individual index components is determined based on their market capitalisation while also using a mechanism to reduce the concentration on individual index components.
The index composition will be reviewed and adjusted on a quarterly basis and currently includes Algorand, Avalanche, Bitcoin, Cardano, Dogecoin, Ether, Litecoin, Polkadot, Polygon, Solana and XRP.
The Swiss firm has also listed on SIX Swiss Exchange a tracker certificate on the new index which currently accounts for approximately 73% of the total crypto market capitalisation. Leonteq offers the largest available universe of crypto products with a total of 25 crypto assets, including Bitcoin, Ether, Cardano, XRP and Solana.
Earlier this month, the Swiss firm added Avalanche, Polygon and Dogecoin as new crypto assets to its platform and each of them ranks among the top-15 crypto assets in terms of market capitalisation. Following this expansion to a total of 25 crypto assets, Leonteq is now launching its first own rule-based index strategy.
‘The recent volatility in the crypto market has shown that a diversified investment approach is warranted when investing in crypto assets,’ said Tino Wendisch (above-right), head crypto offering at Leonteq.
Solana-based options trading platform eyes structured products
Solana-based options trading platform PsyOptions has acquired Tap Finance in a bid to add structured investment products to its lineup.
PsyOptions paid for Tap Finance with a mix of tokens and cash, according to core contributor Tommy Johnson. He declined to state its total value, saying it would “distract” from the news.
The deal is part of PsyOptions plan to become a full-service crypto options outfit where users can earn yield through option strategies and trading options through a single platform. Already host to American style options (which traders can execute right up to expiration), it will now also house Tap’s Decentralized Options Vault (DOV).
DOVs spin up complex options trading strategies for users to trade. Tap Finance currently focuses on bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), solana (SOL) and a handful of other coins.
The platform has around 1,000 individual wallets plugged in which will be added to the 4,000 plugged in to PsyOptions.
Tap Finance is rebranding to PsyFinance under the terms of the deal.
Deutsche Börse reports 922% increase in investors demand for cryptocurrency products
Deutsche Börse has reported an increase in its crypto exchange-traded notes (ETNs) offering which has risen from four to 36 products from eight providers as of the end 2021. The German exchange reported an average monthly trading turnover in crypto ETNs of over €1 billion which is 922% higher compared to €103 million in 2020.
The latest ETF and ETP statistics for 2021 show a substantial jump in investor demand related to crypto products and inflation-linked bonds with crypto ETNs seeing a monumental rise in average monthly trading turnover.
Deutsche Börse expanded its offerings last year to meet the growing demand for crypto products. The exchange offers ETNs of various digital currencies, including Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Cardano, Ethereum, Litecoin, Polkadot, Solana, Stellar, Tezos and TRON, as well as four baskets of other cryptocurrencies.
The German company also acquired a majority stake in Crypto Finance – a Swiss firm that provides digital asset brokerage and services. In addition, the exchange expanded its trading offering last year to include multi-currency capability for ETFs and exchange-traded products (ETPs). The new service allows investors to trade the same ISIN in parallel across several currencies on Xetra.
21Shares announces the listing of three new crypto ETPs on BX Swiss
Crypto ETP provider 21Shares has listed three new crypto ETPs on the BX Swiss with Aave, Chainlink, and Uniswap respectively as the underlying assets.
Aave (ISIN: CH1135202120) is at the forefront of decentralised finance through its open source, non-custodial liquidity market protocol. Aave’s open-source network allows users to seamlessly interact with an API or directly with smart contracts on the Ethereum network, ensuring greater transparency and efficiency.
Chainlink (ISIN: CH1100083471) is among the most sophisticated oracle networks in the world and enables smart contracts to create efficient blockchains for real-time data and computation.
Chainlink’s network has grown to encompass a vast number of use cases from decentralised finance, enterprise infrastructure, insurance products, NFTs, and gaming applications.
Uniswap (ISIN: CH1135202096) is one of the largest decentralised exchanges in the world operating on the Uniswap protocol, which delivers liquidity and trading for tokens on the Ethereum blockchain. Uniswap’s spectacular growth has allowed its ecosystem to integrate 300+ tools and applications, with a trading volume of $785B+, which is among the largest in the industry.
As of February 2022, 21Shares manages more than US$2+ billion in 26 cryptocurrency ETPs and 87 listings, including the world’s only ETPs tracking Binance, four crypto index baskets, and two ETPs with investor staking rewards (Tezos and Solana).