East African country, Seychelles is all set to become the first country to launch a regulated token in its stock market. MERJ Exchange, the national stock exchange lists 31 securities and reports $325.9 million market capitalization and is also the only licensed securities exchange in Seychelles. According to Blomberg, MERJ will beat countries like Switzerland and Gibraltar who have also announced to include tokens in their stock exchange.
So far, regulators all over the world have been rigid on introducing token trades in the stock market. MERJ CEO Edmond Tuohy said,”
“There are a lot of people in the industry who want this, but there is a big gap at the moment, there is no, on the exchange side. A well-regulated institution that does listing, trading, settlement, and registry that’s using distributed ledger technology,”
He believes they are taking advantage of being the first-mover.
OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) in 2013 categorized MERJ as non-compliant in terms of tax transparency. The organization flagged the exchange for the lack of transparency in its financial sector.
CEO Tuohy said in a statement that blockchain technology is better suited for tokenized securities than cryptocurrencies. A second offering would follow the initial listing, and there could be as many as 30 on the exchange by year-end, including real estate companies, he added.
Referring to the field of dreams movie Tuhoy said “It seems like a big bridge to cross and will there be anyone on the other side” If you build it, he will come” he added.
