Switzerland’s FINMA Approves First DLT Trading System

The Boerse Stuttgart Group, the sixth largest exchange group in Europe, is set to establish a market in Switzerland for the trading of digital securities, which are issued using blockchain technology.

As announced by the Boerse Stuttgart Group on March 18, its subsidiary, BX Digital, has become the first Swiss financial market infrastructure to receive a license and authorization from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) to operate a distributed ledger technology (DLT) trading system.

The new platform will create a secondary market for tokenized securities on the Ethereum blockchain and enable the trading of assets like stocks, bonds, and funds, bringing greater liquidity and accessibility to these digital securities.

The direct settlement in Swiss francs and integration with the Swiss National Bank’s payment infrastructure are expected to encourage wider participation from banks and financial institutions.

“The granting of a license by FINMA to operate a DLT trading system is an important step towards setting new standards in capital market efficiency and client access in the area of digital assets. Until now, regulated secondary markets have been lacking,” said Lidia Kurt, chief executive officer of BX Digital.

Kurt added that BX Digital plans to become one of the leading Swiss financial market infrastructures for trading and decentralized settlement of digital assets.

Matthias Voelkel, chief executive officer of the Boerse Stuttgart Group, confirmed that he is convinced of the advantages of blockchain technology for the European capital market. He stated that the exchange wanted to shape the digital European market infrastructure for tokenized assets, laying the foundation for the completion of the Capital Markets Union (CMU), an initiative to create a single capital market throughout the EU.

Voelkel further added that BX Digital was “just the beginning” and that their digital European issuance and settlement platform would “soon” follow.

In January, BX Digital and BX Swiss also partnershiped with Chainlink, decentralized blockchain oracle network, to bring critical pricing data for Swiss-based equities on-chain.

BX Digital is a sister company of the Swiss exchange BX Swiss – both are part of the Boerse Stuttgart Group.

We are excited to announce that Chainlink has partnered with BX Digital and @bx_swiss, both part of @boersestuttgart—one of the largest exchange groups in Europe.

Chainlink’s data solution for Swiss-based tokenized equities is live on testnet. Once in production on mainnet, BX… pic.twitter.com/LKd4tjsJfO

— Chainlink (@chainlink) January 23, 2025

This approval fills a critical gap in the Swiss digital asset market by enabling the trading of digital securities that were previously limited to initial issuance.

BX Digital’s DLT system, leveraging blockchain technology, will facilitate faster, cheaper, and more secure transactions, bypassing traditional intermediaries.

Switzerland’s neighbor, Germany, is also making strides in tokenization, with its tokenized securities market experiencing rapid growth.

In a year leading up to the end of 2023, the volume of issued tokenized securities increased from €31 million (around $34 million) to approximately €183 million (around $199 million). The market further surged to €615 million ($671 million) in the second half of 2024 alone. This growth shows the increasing adoption and acceptance of digital assets in Germany.

On March 11, 21X, a licensed DLT trading and settlement system, and Cashlink Technologies, an infrastructure provider for tokenized securities, created a regulatory-compliant ecosystem for tokenized securities in Germany, starting on the Polygon blockchain.

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