Deutsche Borse, Swisscom & Sygnum Collaborate to Establish Trustworthy Digital Asset Ecosystem

The Deutsche Börse Group, one of the world’s foremost providers of market infrastructure, Swisscom, the domineering Swiss Information and Communication and Technology (ICT) company that offers IT service, and Sygnum, a Swiss and Singapore-based fintech firm in the review process to acquire a Swiss banking and securities dealer license, have inked a strategic partnership deal. The objective of this collaboration is to collaboratively develop a reputable and regulatory financial market framework for cryptocurrencies.

Asset tokenization, the following crucial stage of asset digitization, has the capability to upend world financial markets. The nascent tokenized economy requires a trustworthy, exhaustive and regulatory ecosystem to completely unwrap its capacity. This integrated ecosystem, created by powerful and experienced associates around crypto assets, will facilitate investors to capitalize on these new asset classes and encompass future customer needs.

The solution’s core aspects will be disbursement, guardianship, access to liquidity, and financial services–all harnessing Distributed-Ledger-Technology (DLT) in a legislative environment. The key stakeholders will collaboratively grow and heighten these basic tenets of the ecosystem of digital assets in calibration with market players’ requirements.

The strategic alliance includes Deutsche Börse’s outlay in Custodigit AG. Swisscom and Sygnum started the company as a joint project in 2018. Custodigit AG offers legalized financial services institutions with a technological solution for the guardianship of digital assets. The interconnected platform enables bank’s clients to handle the complete life cycle of their crypto assets’.

Deutsche Börse, being a major shareholder, will proactively back Custodigit AG’s growth plan and the range of services offered. In addition, the German Stock Exchange and Sygnum will turn out to be daura AG shareholders.

The company has built a software that uses Distributed Ledger Technologies to disburse, reallocate and register Swiss SME shares securely, allowing non-listed companies to take advantage of capital markets. Deutsche Börse and Sygnum, as investors, will be proactively involved in the future growth of the companies.

In addition, Deutsche Börse and Sygnum are presently visualizing the setup of another ecosystem building block–a Swiss market for digital assets listing and trading venue. Unrestricted access to liquidity through a transparent, regulatory marketplace is deemed a vital component for creating an ecosystem of scalable digital assets.

Sygnum will offer detailed banking banking banking banking services such as guardianship, deposits, credit & loaning, capital issuance through tokenization, brokerage and asset administration within the cryptol asset ecosystem after receiving a Swiss banking and securities dealer license from the Swiss regulator FINMA.

The ecosystem formed by by by the associates is based on the Decentralized Ledger Infrastructure created and run by Swisscom, convening financial services organizations ‘ security standards and permitting for scalability. It is anticipated that the very first products and services offered by the modern digital asset ecosystem will be made available in 2019. The transaction is subject to merger control clearance.

Commenting on the partnership, Jens Hachmeister, Managing Director, DLT, Crypto Assets and New Market Structure, Deutsche Börse highlights:

“This cooperation, the complementary infrastructure and expertise of the parties involved, is a great opportunity for creating a comprehensive and market leading ecosystem for digital assets. With Swisscom and Sygnum we have two highly recognized partners on board and we are looking forward to bundle forces. Continuing our investments in new technologies and driving the development around DLT forward is a key focus of Deutsche Börse Group. Switzerland, known to be a nucleus for financial markets innovation, is the ideal starting point for Deutsche Börse to drive this evolution forward.”

Swisscom’s Chief Digital Officer Roger Wüthrich-Hasenböhler elaborates as follows:

“The collaboration with Deutsche Börse and Sygnum is the perfect step for the development of a comprehensive digital asset ecosystem. The cooperation allows to advance our vision of an extensive solution for the registration, safekeeping and transfer of digital assets. The partnership combines unique know-how in the fields of digital assets, banking, compliance and technology. Thus, we are in the perfect condition to create solutions for regulated financial service providers that are based on security, reliability and compliance, and enable them to enter a new financial services era.”

Founding Partner & CEO Singapore of Sygnum Mathias Imbach said:

“Sygnum’s banking expertise and ability to innovate rapidly using Distributed Ledger Technologies, combined with Deutsche Börse and Swisscom’s experience in building and operating scalable financial services infrastructure, is a winning formula. We are thrilled to embark on this journey with two such strong partners to unlock the potential of the digital asset universe for institutional market participants – and ultimately spearhead digital assets’ transition from mainstream awareness to mainstream adoption. The establishment of a trusted digital asset ecosystem is also another strong example of Switzerland and Singapore’s continued leading role in global financial markets innovation.”