Seychelles Stock Market Plans World-First Listed Security Token

(Bloomberg) -- Seychelles’ securities exchange plans to list the world’s first regulated security token on a national stock market.

Tokenized shares will be traded in the Indian Ocean archipelago, better known for its white-sand beaches than its capital markets, alongside existing stock for the company, MERJ Exchange Ltd., which operates the bourse, said in a statement on Tuesday. The planned date of the listing wasn’t given.

Tokenized stocks are shares in a business in the form of digital assets such as cryptocoins. The use of blockchain technology, a decentralized ledger that underpins cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, allows the easy transfer of these assets between buyers and sellers.

“We truly believe this technology will be one of the key steps toward democratizing access to global access to the capital markets,” Edmond Tuohy, the chief executive officer of MERJ, said in the statement.

MERJ Exchange, formerly known as Trop-X Seychelles Ltd., began trading securities in 2013. The exchange has about 31 securities listed and a market capitalization of $325.9 million, it said in an email.

To contact the reporter on this story: Antony Sguazzin in Johannesburg at asguazzin@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: John McCorry at jmccorry@bloomberg.net, Paul Richardson, John Viljoen

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