SIX Digital Exchange has officially launched by issuing the world's first digital bond in a fully regulated environment.
Swiss stock exchange SIX finally received full regulatory approval in September for the launch of a crypto operation first unveiled back in 2018.
To mark the launch, a bond comprising two exchangeable parts has been issued. The first, digital, part will be listed and traded on SDX Trading and centrally held by SIX Digital Exchange. A second, traditional, part will be listed and traded on the original SIX Swiss Exchange.
The digital part accounts for CHF100 million of the total issue volume, with CHF50 million allocated to the traditional part. The offering was oversubscribed several times and attracted strong interest from a broad institutional investor base in Switzerland, says SIX.
Thomas Zeeb, global head, markets, SIX, says: “The first issue of a tokenized bond on the SIX Digital Exchange as well as its listing and placement in the market proves that the forward-looking distributed ledger technology also works very well in the highly regulated capital market. This transaction marks the beginning of a new era."