2022 could be the year of Security Tokens and STOs. What triggers this theory is the recent fleet of excellent news about this specific asset class and fundraising methods.
While 2021 was the year of NFTs, 2020 was the year of DeFi, 2019 was the year of Libra, 2018 was the year of hash wars and 2017 was the year of ICOs, 2022 could see a rise in the trend of securities.
Summary
What are security tokens?
Security tokens are cryptocurrencies, usually based on the Ethereum blockchain, that represent the dividends of the company that issues them. In this sense, they follow a different and even stricter regulation than utilities, so much so that in 2017 everyone was wary of having their token valued as a security.
Many exchanges are not authorized to list securities and different regulations must be followed in order to buy or sell them.
The case of Ripple comes to mind. In the US, Ripple is doing everything it can to not be declared as a security in order to avoid legal problems.
The latest news on securities
Today came the news that the first STO has been approved in Germany.
It is Exordium with its EXOeu token based on a Bitcoin sidechain that will be offered for sale on the STOKR platform.
Exordium is a producer of video games such as Infinite Fleet and has already raised over $7 million since last January using STOKR, but is unable to accept investors in Germany.
STOKR co-founder Tobias Seidl commented on the news as follows:
“The go-ahead from BaFin for Exordium’s STO in Germany marks the beginning of a new era of cross-border blockchain-based issuances of registered securities. We see Bitcoin as a fundamental backbone of the future capital markets, which will be built on blockchains”.
STOKR has been operating in the security market for over two years.
Bitfinex launches its STO platform
This had been talked about since at least 2018 and here it is that also in late 2021 Bitfinex announced the imminent launch of its own STO platform, Bitfinex Securities Ltd.
The ok in this case came from the Asian AIFC Fintech Lab and places Bitfinex among those that could be leaders in a growing sector.
Cryptocurrency regulation
With increasing regulation for cryptocurrencies, it is likely that launching an STO or having a security token could become increasingly easy. The problem so far has been more of a lack of clear regulation in this area, which has therefore resulted in companies being afraid to put such products on the market.
If regulation is increased, and in a clear manner, then perhaps 2022 could become the year of the spread and growth of security tokens.
