Overstock.com unit to.com (tZERO) and BOX Digital Markets said on Tuesday they plan to launch a regulated exchange for security tokens. Security tokens are digital representations of financial assets such as stocks, real estate or debt. Analysts said there are several projects in the works that would tokenize these financial assets.
tZERO and BOX said in a statement they entered into an equally-owned joint venture to create an exchange that will list and publicly trade security tokens, including those converted from a company's existing stock. The companies will also seek the approval from the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Once launched, the companies said the new trading platform will be the first regulated security token exchange.
Lisa Fall, chief executive of BOX Digital and president of BOX Options Exchange LLC, will be the CEO of the joint venture. BOX Digital is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BOX Holdings Group LLC, which owns and operates BOX Market, an equity options marketplace and a facility of BOX Options Exchange.
tZERO said it plans to contribute cash and license its blockchain technology for operation of the security token market. BOX Digital will contribute expertise and personnel toward obtaining regulatory approval and running the security token exchange.