‘Govts know digital assets are here to stay,’ upcoming exchange says

A Gibraltar-based company says it is building a digital asset exchange that will be fully compliant with regulations from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and the European Union.

According to INX, the evolution of blockchain-based currencies and assets is finally beginning to gain steam — and governments around the world are beginning to realize that digital payments are here to stay.

The company’s team consists of top executives from some of the world’s biggest financial institutions, including American Express, Morgan Stanley, Standard Chartered, HSBC, TD Ameritrade and Societe Generale.

INX says its vision is to establish a new digital asset trading ecosystem with a big difference. The company claims that, while some crypto-focused companies tend to shy away from regulators, INX is determined to work with them to foster innovation and protect consumers.

The business adds that it has another unique selling point up its sleeve: the technology underpinning its product has been painstakingly built in-house and has not been licensed.

The digital asset world

Overall, INX says that it is determined to ensure that digital asset trading is no longer reserved for a small handful of institutional or venture capital investors. Instead, it wants to help cultivate a “strong, healthy community of token holders.”

The company’s blockchain asset trading solution is fully developed and ready for launch. It will pave the way for users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Zcash (ZEC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH), as well as security tokens and their derivatives. A range of main order types are supported, and technical analysis tools will be provided to help traders make informed decisions. An API interface is going to be offered for broker dealers, corporate financiers, traders and market makers too, and this will be coupled with industry-standard reporting for regulators.

INX says that millions of dollars have been invested in its technology so far, which has the goal of helping the digital asset space achieve legitimacy in the eyes of everyday investors. According to the team, compliance with Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering measures will be achieved automatically, and the platform is set to unlock a “wider range of financial instruments and possibilities for all.” In time, it is also hoped that INX will be used to raise capital for fractional and illiquid assets such as real estate and art, paving the way for partial ownership.

Ultimately, INX’s goal is to help cement a permanent shift to a digital asset world where equity shares are replaced by digital security tokens that represent ownership in an asset rather than a company. This will be achieved through a professional user interface that is unified across a plethora of platforms, including Windows and Mac as well as iOS and Android devices.

A big milestone planned

INX is now holding what it describes as the first-ever security token initial public offering that has been cleared by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, “opening the floodgates of tokenization to American retail investors who have until now been barred from investing in digital assets.”

The company is aiming to raise $117 million from its IPO, and says this would pave the way for the digital asset trading platform to launch within six months. 

“Whereas not too long ago, prominent business leaders and politicians, including President Trump, dismissed cryptocurrencies as essentially fake money, governments around the world are coming to understand these digital assets and currencies are here to stay,” INX said.

INX also described the green light from the SEC as a “telling recognition by the U.S. government that digital assets and currencies are becoming a financial force to be reckoned with.”