UK Regulator Grants License to Digital Security Exchange Archax

The U.K. watchdog has granted several licenses to Archax that will allow it to become a "one-stop shop" for the digital security space.

AccessTimeIconAug 19, 2020 at 10:13 a.m. UTC
Updated Aug 19, 2021 at 3:47 a.m. UTC

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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has granted several licenses to digital securities exchange and custodian Archax – making it one of the world's first authorized trading spaces for the asset-class.

  • Archax said Wednesday it was now licensed as a multilateral trading facility (MTF) exchange, a broker and a cash and asset custodian.
  • It is also the first crypto-asset firm to be registered with the U.K.'s Financial Conduct Authority, a designation that will soon be mandatory for all companies working in the digital asset space from January next year.
  • The London-based exchange, which is orientated towards institutions, is now authorized to host offerings, act as a trading venue as well as custody digital securities.
  • Co-founder and CFO Matthew Pollard told CoinDesk Archax had become a "one-stop-shop" for the still-nascent digital securities space.
  • A digital security is a catch-all term for traditional assets, such as equity or debt, that has been tokenized and put on the blockchain.
  • The upshot from Wednesday's announcement is that institutions will be able to trade digital securities on an authorized market for the very first time in the U.K.
  • Archax CEO Graham Rodford said the exchange now has 35 issuances in the pipeline.
  • Pollard said Archax employed its own specific admissions criteria for the type of digital securities it would allow on its platform.
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