Seturion, settlement for tokenized securities

A securities trade has two halves. Trading matches buyer and seller within seconds; settlement, the exchange of securities against money, runs afterward through a central securities depository, and in Europe each country has its own. "Europe's capital markets are highly fragmented, with numerous post-trade infrastructure providers and legal divergence across the European Union, resulting in higher costs, longer settlement cycles, and operational complexity," Timmy Shen wrote in The Block. The knowledge hub answer on clearing vs settlement explains the two steps.

Tokenized securities move that second half onto a blockchain, where the security and the payment can change hands in one step. Onchain capital markets covers the wider field and the other platforms working on it.

Seturion calls itself the European settlement platform for tokenized assets. It settles securities transactions of all asset classes on public and selected private blockchains, against central bank money or onchain cash such as MiCA-compliant stablecoins. Participants bring their own wallets, and no central securities depository is required. Trading can stay where it is today: the platform links trades made offchain on an exchange with settlement onchain, and banks, brokers and trading venues can connect to it.

The first asset class is structured products. "Faster and more cost-efficient settlement on tokenized rails is especially relevant for securities with high numbers of transactions and issued products," said Dr. Lidia Kurt, CEO of Seturion, in the partnership announcement. Certificates and warrants are such securities.

Group CEO Dr. Matthias Voelkel ties the project to EU policy: "With Seturion, we are building the European settlement platform for the unified European capital market that is emerging as a result of the Capital Markets Union," he said in the same release, adding that more financial institutions will follow.

Nasdaq connects its European trading venues to Seturion, starting with structured products and with more asset classes planned later (The Block). Ledger Insights noted that Nasdaq runs several exchanges in the Nordics that support structured product trading, Nasdaq Stockholm in particular. "Tokenization presents a transformative opportunity to address inefficiencies in settlement and securities processing workflows, while preserving the trust, stability, and regulatory rigor that underpin well-functioning markets," said Roland Chai, president of European market services at Nasdaq, as quoted by The Block.

A second group of partners joined later (media release). Societe Generale, an issuer of turbo warrants and investment certificates, plans to issue tokenized versions of these products on Seturion. flatexDEGIRO, an online broker with more than 3.5 million customers in 16 countries, connects its retail order flow; Societe Generale is already its partner in trading structured securities, so trading venues connected to Seturion gain access to these retail investors for the bank's tokenized products. SG-FORGE, Societe Generale's crypto subsidiary, provides its euro and US dollar stablecoins, EUR CoinVertible and USD CoinVertible, for settlement between the parties. A test transaction with EUR CoinVertible had already settled on Seturion (Boerse Stuttgart Digital).

SeturionX, formerly BX Digital, is the group's Swiss trading and settlement system for tokenized assets. It holds the first FINMA license for a DLT trading facility in Switzerland and trades tokenized shares, bonds, ETPs and tracker certificates. It launched on Ethereum and can add other blockchains; delivery versus payment runs through smart contracts connected to SIC, the Swiss national payment system. SeturionX already uses Seturion for settlement. Crypto Valley covers the Swiss rules for DLT trading facilities.

Inside the EU, Seturion needs a license under the DLT Pilot Regime to go live. It has applied for a DLT settlement system license (Ledger Insights), and its own site says EU licensing is underway. Group CEO Dr. Matthias Voelkel told Sven Wagenknecht of BTC-ECHO (in German) that the revision of the DLT Pilot Regime has to pass quickly. Tokenized securities explains the German and EU law under which such securities exist.

Finance Loop's blog announced the Frankfurt Forum on Digital Assets & Applications, which d-fine organized at the Literaturhaus Frankfurt for experts on DLT-based securities, money and infrastructure. Seturion was on its first panel about DLT-based market infrastructures, next to DekaBank, 360X and 21X. Blockchain experts of d-fine moderated both panels. Finance Loop also partners with the Crypto Assets Conference in Frankfurt, hosted by Frankfurt School and Deutsche Börse Group.

Boerse Stuttgart Group. Seturion is part of the group's tokenized assets division and fully owns BX Digital, now SeturionX, in Switzerland. Its CEO is Dr. Lidia Kurt.

More than one. Seturion supports public and selected private blockchains, and settlement can run against central bank money or stablecoins. SeturionX in Switzerland launched on Ethereum.

Seturion is the settlement platform. BX Digital, renamed SeturionX, is a Swiss trading venue for tokenized assets with a FINMA license, and it settles its trades on Seturion.