Archax on Wednesday announced that it became the first ever FCA regulated digital securities exchange and custodian in the UK, on their official website.
This important milestone for the emerging global digital securities ecosystem means, for the first time, digital issuances from across the world will be able to trade on an FCA authorised secondary market and institutions will have access to a credible regulated trading venue on which to engage with the digital securities space, the statement added.
At the same time, Archax has also become the first ever company to receive its FCA cryptoasset registration, and therefore become a fully compliant VASP (Virtual Asset Service Provider). This FCA registration was introduced earlier this year as part of the amended Money Laundering Regulations (5MLD) and is now mandatory for all cryptoasset firms.
“In the current global economic climate, providing new, efficient ways for small and medium sized businesses to access capital is key. Blockchain and tokenisation are innovations that can empower more frictionless and transparent markets which, combined with an FCA regulated exchange like Archax, can deliver what capital providers, business leaders and founders now really need. The launch of the Archax exchange will help bring the institutional and digital asset communities closer together, and open up a new era for the global financial markets space,” David Lester, former Chief Strategy Officer of the London Stock Exchange Group and Advisor and Non-Executive Director at Archax said.
Built by a team with deep traditional financial markets experience, Archax has been designed from the ground up to be a global, regulated, digital asset exchange targeted at institutions.
Using class-leading matching engine technology and market surveillance from Aquis, and R3’s private, permissioned Corda blockchain for post-trade, Archax can easily integrate into existing trading workflows and delivers instantaneous real-time settlement. Archax’s FCA regulated exchange status will also give institutions the confidence that all the controls and processes needed and expected are in place.
