21X Receives EU License for Blockchain-Based Trading Platform

On December 3, 2024, the Frankfurt-based fintech company 21X received a license from BaFin (Federal Financial Supervisory Authority) to operate a blockchain-based trading and settlement system for tokenized securities. This approval, granted under the EU DLT Pilot Regime, marks a significant step toward integrating distributed ledger technology (DLT) into Europe's regulated financial markets.

What's the news

The license allows 21X to operate a fully regulated, blockchain-based platform for trading and settling tokenized financial instruments. With this platform, scheduled to launch in 2025, institutional and retail investors will be able to trade and settle tokenized securities with the same level of trust, security and compliance as on traditional markets. Using DLT, trading and settlement processes are made more efficient, intermediaries are reduced, and transactions are executed faster and at lower cost.

Strategic partnership with Chainlink

To strengthen the platform's reliability and interoperability, 21X has entered into a strategic partnership with Chainlink. Chainlink provides reliable oracle services that enable 21X to integrate accurate price data for the tokenized assets traded on the platform. In addition, Chainlink's Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) enables access to assets on different blockchains.

Good to know:

The EU DLT Pilot Regime, which came into force in March 2023, provides an experimental regulatory environment for the use of distributed ledger technologies in the financial sector. Compared with conventional licenses, the regime lowers regulatory barriers, for example by permitting exemptions from certain requirements of the EU regulation on investment services.