Today, stock exchange Boerse Stuttgart announced that trading has started on its digital asset exchange platform. The regulated platform, Boerse Stuttgart Digital Exchange (BSDEX), uses blockchain for more efficient processes and is the first of its kind in Germany. It hopes to give investors access to cryptocurrencies and digital assets without the need for a broker.
BSDEX is operated by the joint venture between Boerse Stuttgart (70%), Axel Springer, and finanzen.net announced in March. As of today, the exchange is available to selected users in Germany. Other investors can register now to be included as the firms gradually open the platform.
As planned, the exchange currently allows cryptocurrency trading, between Bitcoin and Euro, along with market information and open order books. The platform further provides buying and selling prices through a dedicated subsidiary of Boerse Stuttgart, EUWAX AG.
BDSEX’s use of blockchain technology allows for transparent and modernized investment, reducing settlement time and costs associated with intermediaries such as brokers. The platform is legally compliant and regulated by the operating company of the Stuttgart public stock exchange.
The CEO of the joint venture, Dr Dick Sturz, said: “The market in cryptocurrencies is worth billions, and more digital assets will emerge on the basis of blockchain. Our goal is to build up the leading European trading venue for those assets.”
On the leverage of blockchain by BSDEX, CTO Peter Großkopf explained: “BSDEX will give retail and institutional investors direct access to digital assets and provide flexible and relatively low-cost trading. We believe blockchain is set to bring about significant changes in the financial industry, and we want to leverage its potential to create the trading venue of the future.”
Großkopf was previously CTO of solarisBank AG, which is a technology partner of the project. The bank is responsible for the custody of Euro deposits and payment processing.
Boerse Stuttgart launched exchange-traded notes (ETNs) based on Litecoin and Ripple in May and already had a cryptocurrency trading app up and running. However, it was not the first to work on a European digital asset exchange.
Deutsche Börse hopes to launch a trading platform in Switzerland with Swisscom this year. Fellow Swiss firm SIX planned to launch its blockchain exchange this summer, but this has been delayed, with trading slated to start in 2020. SIX aims to list tokenized shares, including those of Nestle and Novartis.
