Fund administration firm Apex has partnered with Ownera, which provides an interoperability solution for tokenized assets to address the increasing fragmentation of blockchain networks.
With a proliferating number of networks, the need for interoperability is ever more pressing. Blockchain interoperability is one option, although imperfect, complex and with many options to choose from. Another path is to connect to multiple chains using APIs. But if a wealth manager wants to offer their clients tokenized assets on ten different blockchains, that would mean ten API connections. The whole point of blockchain was to solve for silos, not create more of them.
Ownera provides a third path. It has created the FinP2P routing network that doesn’t itself use blockchain. In many ways, this is like a hub with the different blockchains acting like spokes. That asset manager that wants to provide access to ten blockchains can have a single connection to Ownera.
The blockchains could be a mix of permissioned or permissionless ones. It supports connectivity with Digital Asset’s Canton, R3’d Corda, Hyperledger Besu, Quorum and others. FinP2P also provides connectivity to services providers such as custodians, asset servicing firms, and in Apex’s case, fund administrators. Hence, it will allow Apex to distribute and service assets on behalf of clients.
Peter Hughes, Founder and CEO of Apex said the connectivity “will extend access to buy-side demand as well as custodians and asset servicing firms.”
Apex Group started to target blockchain in 2021 when it led a $25 million funding round for Inveniam, which leans on blockchain to provide automated valuation and pricing data for private assets. The following year, Apex acquired FundAdminChain. In 2023 it invested in Tokeny, Inveniam’s tokenization partner, which founded the ERC3643 standard for permissioned security tokens.
One of Apex’s recent partnerships is with 21X, the startup that plans to launch an EU regulated exchange and settlement platform for digital securities in Q1 2025. It was recently awarded a license under the EU’s DLT Pilot Regime. Apex will enable its clients to list securities on the 21X exchange.
