Former UBS veteran, Claude Waelchli, is to launch a US-based digital securities issuance platform, Tokenyz, which aims to modernise the legacy securities industry.
Stepping away from his role at UBS as Head of Portfolio Advisory for Global ultra-high net worth and institutional clients, Waelchli believes “digitisation of traditional securities will create exponential growth opportunities for traditional financial markets.” Especially the digitalisation of financial and real assets such as debt, equity and real estate, which represent a USD600 billion opportunity, according to The Money Project.
Digital securities have many advantages, such as automation of manual processes, faster settlement speeds, liquidity creation, lowering minimum trade size and more, but it still remains a relatively new concept in the nascent blockchain sphere with very little adoption of the model by institutional investors.
“Today we have two separate camps: tech companies with immense tokenisation capability but little financial acumen, and financial services companies locked into their traditional business models, who experiment a little with new technology but nothing substantial to date,” says Waelchli. In theory, all existing asset classes can be put into digital certificates “tokens”.
This couldn’t be more evident than in the Boston Consulting Group’s Top 50 List of 2019 Most Innovative Companies, where only four financial services firms were featured, demonstrating just how transformative digital securities will be for traditional financial markets.
In an attempt to bridge both camps, Waelchli who is CEO and Co-Founder of Tokenyz, has joined forces with Benson Samuel, an expert in algorithmic trading systems for crypto and digital assets and Harsh Patel a core blockchain developer with a unique understanding of smart contracts architecture in relation to cyber security issues.
Waelchli says: “Over the last few years I have truly grasped the disruptive power of blockchain technology for financial markets and existing business models. By joining forces with distinguished engineers and entrepreneurs in the digital securities space, we have embarked on a mission to build the world’s leading digital investment bank. It is our firm belief that the digitisation of traditional securities will create exponential growth opportunities in the years ahead.”
By addressing the current friction in capital markets, and the relatively limited financial expertise within the digital asset ecosystem, Tokenyz aims to become the leading platform for compliant digital securities issuance and liquidity on the blockchain.
Tokenyz have already built the secure and reliable infrastructure needed to support the digitalisation of existing assets and provide a seamless experience for individual and institutional investors wanting to diversify their asset allocation. The team are now working towards establishing a common standard for digital securities which will foster capital formation and growth of the market.
Recent FINRA approvals of broker dealer licenses in the digital securities space as well as a blockchain-based settlement platform for listed equities by the SEC (via a “no-action” letter) shows encouraging signs for the digital securities market.
“Regulators are clearly getting more comfortable with the new technology and I would expect that the US will soon play catch-up and close the gap with smaller jurisdictions,” says Waelchli.
