Today Israel’s stock exchange operator TASE unveiled its five-year strategic plan that includes a platform for digital assets and “venturing into crypto”. Last week it announced it would assist the Ministry of Finance in launching blockchain-based government bonds.
The plan “takes the development and management of innovative services and products to the next level; we will not only partake in the change but aim to spearhead it,” said TASE CEO Ittai Ben-Zeev.
Ben-Zeev spoke about tokenizing various asset classes and using DLT and other technologies to transform the existing infrastructure. It is planning a trading, clearing and custody service, which is not dissimilar to what has been launched by the SIX Digital Exchange and is planned by the Deutsche Börse.
TASE is also considering exporting its DLT, blockchain and tokenization technologies to other small and medium exchanges.
The assets it is considering include private markets, digital bonds as already announced, and other digital assets, including cryptocurrencies, utility tokens and NFTs.
At the same time, it identified the three challenges of regulatory uncertainty, substantial costs, and local and international competition.
The Israeli Security Authority found that 52% of new investors allocate up to 10% of their portfolio to digital assets and 30% of investors hold digital assets. It estimates that Israelis hold 10 billion shekels ($2.8 bn) in digital assets.
Meanwhile, TASE has already developed a blockchain-baed securities lending solution, and its ‘lending pool’ was amongst the proprietary technologies it is considering licensing.
