ICHX the operator of the iSTOX announced that it has been approved by Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) as a recognised market operator and capital markets services licensee. According to their press statement, this makes iSTOX the first capital markets platform using distributed ledger technology (DLT) to feature integrated issuance, custody and trading of digitised securities to be approved and licensed by a major regulator
Graduation from the MAS sandbox means the removal of restrictions for iSTOX, including limitations on the size of issuances that it can host and number of investors that can be onboarded.
“This is a big milestone both for iSTOX and for the financial industry as a whole,”
said Danny Toe, Founder and CEO of ICHX.
“We started this just over two years ago as a vision of how investing could be done better. Today we truly emerge as a 21st century financial institution.”
“While capital markets have seen many changes and innovations over the years, the underlying core infrastructure hasn’t really changed since the advent of electronic trading decades ago,”
MAS Chief FinTech Officer Sopnendu Mohanty hailed iSTOX’s graduation as a success of the program:
“We are delighted that the regulatory sandbox has enabled iSTOX to validate its technological innovation with actual customers in a safe manner,”
he said.
“This has again demonstrated that proportional regulations through sandbox experimentation can foster innovation and bring new benefits to consumers and the financial industry. We look forward to further our collaboration with innovators as we build a smart financial centre.”
Key investors of ICHX include Singapore Exchange (SGX), Asia’s leading international multi-asset exchange; Heliconia, a subsidiary of Temasek Holdings focused on investing in fast growing companies;