🤝 Security Token Prime Insights: 9/16/2024

Exclusive Intelligence for Security Token Prime Members

September 16, 2024

Summary and Key Takeaways

1. tZERO Becomes Second Firm in History to Receive Special Purpose Broker-Dealer License

Did you think Prometheum killed the interest in the SPBD license? This is critical to enable brokers to custody securities on behalf of their clients and could become a competitive advantage over other platforms. Many other leading platforms including Securitize have publicly noted they are applying for the same license but Prometheum long remained the only firm in the world with this license, until last week that is. FINRA awarded the license to RWA marketplace tZERO, in which they said they plan to offer the most feature-rich broker platform in the world and it will be interesting to see how they embed the new capabilities from their license which will likely cater to a non-crypto native audience (which could be a massive amount of wealth in institutional and retail alike).

2. Centrifuge and Anemoy Tap Professional Asset Manager Janus Henderson

The liquidity products/ money market funds/ treasuries race is red hot competitive and in order to succeed growing AUM is the only option. In a landscape that features brand name asset managers like BlackRock and Franklin Templeton, it may be hard to win business against them. Technology and fees will win the day but in order to be considered in the first place having a professional asset manager may be critical. Anemoy’s LTF product only sits at around $11 Million in size and now they’ve tapped Janus Henderson ($300B+ AUM) to see if they can help take it to the next level, quickly applying to the MakerDAO/ Sky Grand Prix already.

3. Securitize Tokenizes 3 More Deals, Approaches $1 Billion in AUM

One of the investors from Securitize’s Series B earlier this year was the billion dollar crypto fund ParaFi Capital. They’ve recently announced that they are taking a portion of their latest fund and using Securitize to tokenize it, which is great to see many of their investors using their investment. This release follows another deal called Earth First Food Ventures raising a Series A for its alternative dairy play. Finally, the BUIDL ecosystem spreads to APAC through Velo Labs, who is using Securitize to tokenize a fund that will hold BUIDL. All this puts Securitize on track to blow past their $950M in assets on their platform into the largest tokenization platform in the world.

4. Northern Trust Launches Tokenized Carbon Credits Marketplace

Many asset classes are seeing disruption from tokenization and the carbon credits space is no exception. In fact, it may be one of the best use cases of the technology given the complications around relying on registrars as middlemen to track the creation and retirement of carbon credit markets. The lack of standardization has hindered this market greatly from growing and blockchain could be the solution. A litany of startups around the world are already attempting to do just that but without any major traction. A reputable firm that commands attention with more than a trillion dollars in AUM may be exactly what is needed to activate the carbon credit RWA market. Will this just be another pig with lipstick on it or will their Matrix Zenith Carbon Ecosystem power billions of carbon credit transactions one day?

5. Goldman Sachs Adds Patrick B. Martinez to Digital Assets Team

Previously at Northern Trust, Patrick B. Martinez has made a transition to Goldman Sachs under Matt McDermott’s leadership. According to his LinkedIn bio, in his new Vice President role he’ll be supporting the team with their firmwide mandate “across build, buy, partnership, and investment opportunities.” 

We’re proud to have connected with Patrick during his tenure at Northern Trust and thank him for speaking at TokenizeThis 2024 in addition to valuable feedback he’s shared with STM. We look forward to his accomplishments at Goldman and further collaboration. Best of luck Patrick!

Notable Market Headlines

Institutional Activity

NEW STM REPORT AVAILABLE - Updated tZERO Interview!

Look out for STM’s latest report: State of the Tokenization Industry 2024 - The Year of the RWA which features over 350 service providers and tokenization issuers and their updates for the year to date across 18 categories from blockchains to issuances to DeFi and all the updates from tokenization platforms and marketplaces. Dive into the report, made possible thanks to SteelWave Digital and now with a special interview with tZERO! Check out the updates. 

STM Data

This week the Security Token Market Data Team would like to shine some light on last week’s trading activity.

Looking more closely at the secondary market for US alternative trading systems (ATS), this impressive growth is largely driven by tZERO’s own security token, $TZROP, which usually sees volumes in the single digit thousands of dollars on individual days. This past week saw 4 consecutive days of tens of thousands, with each of them increasing the token price, resulting in a total of $169,537.71 in volume.

The next large sum of US ATS volume comes from 4 security tokens on INX One, together accounting for $67,472.57. These are INX’s own token ($INX), Republic Note ($NOTE), Hashrate Asset Group ($HAG), and Millennium Sapphire ($MSTO).

Keep up with security token data on STM.Co!

Security Token Prime is Made Possible Thanks to Our Enterprise Partners

Events

Tokenization is a growing trend among TradFi folks, but why hasn't the market exploded in adoption yet? Is tokenization not as easy as it sounds?

This webinar will explore the challenges behind tokenization including compliance, regulations, legacy tools, market hours and more.

Recent Recordings

  • (NEW) Risk Management in Tokenized Assets with Moody's and Particula (Recording Link)

  • Blockchain Meets Construction with Inveniam & LV8R Labs (Recording Link)

  • Non-Performing Loans with BlockInvest and Davis & Morgan (Recording Link)

  • Issuer Spotlight: Tuscany National Token (Recording Link)

  • Platform Spotlight: Block Time Financial (Recording Link)

  • The TradFi/DeFi Hybrid with Maple, Centrifuge and Swarm (Recording Link)

  • Platform Spotlight: REtokens' New Platform with Tyler Vinson and David Kirschbaum (Recording Link)

  • Powers Hour: New SEC “Dealer” Rule Expansion and DeFi Impacts (Recording Link)

TokenizeThis Workshop Tour Around the US Launches September

Get your tickets today for a full day masterclass around tokenization from A to Z. There continues to be a massive education gap in the industry and off the success of the original workshop in Miami last May, we’ve decided to go nationwide. We’ll be visiting NYC, Houston, Boston, LA, SF, Atlanta, and Chicago, check out workshop.stm.co for more information. Use code PRIME for 15% off.

Hello readers,

This is the week of networking in Singapore with most of you reading this from there right now instead of your usual place. This is one of those last opportunities to put in motion plans for a Q1 launch with the final deals of the year closing in the next few months. That makes this one of the last and best business development opportunities out there left.

More importantly, RWAs are a hot topic now which makes a conference like Token2049 even more worth it. If you’re out there, reach out to me and I’ll help you find the great side events and the right people to connect with. This all makes me wonder, could TokenizeThis get to the same size one day? Help us do it! Get ready for a big announcement.

Happy tokenizing,
Herwig “Happy” Konings
CEO, Security Token Group 
Follow me on X / LinkedIn

Herwig’s Pick: Northern Trust

Kyle’s Pick: OpenEden

Find out why and more every Friday live at 2pm EST on LinkedIn or X/ Twitter. Past episodes available on Youtube or your favorite podcast platform! 

Helpful Resources

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