Swiss Stock Exchange Invests in Institutional Trading Platform for Digital Assets

Switzerland’s main inventory change has invested in an institutional buying and selling platform, with plans to make use of it as a “gateway” into the digital asset house.

SIX Swiss Change introduced Tuesday it has fashioned a partnership with San Francisco-based institutional resolution Omniex to offer SIX and its subsidiary, Swiss Digital Change (SDX), with entry to cryptocurrency markets.

Thomas Zeeb, SIX head of securities and exchanges, in addition to a member of the manager board, defined there was a “rising want” for platforms like SIX to have entry to cryptocurrencies. The tie-up with Omniex will present the inventory change with a “standardized and safe gateway” within the rising digital asset market, he mentioned.

“With SDX because the digital change infrastructure in growth, the collaboration with Omniex to ship the entrance finish for purchasers, each for current crypto currencies, in addition to in future for SDX-listed property, is a vital addition to the digital ecosystem,” Zeeb mentioned in an announcement.

As a part of the settlement, SIX has additionally agreed to develop into a shareholder in Omniex for an undisclosed sum.

With a market cap of greater than 1 trillion Swiss francs (simply over $1 trillion) in January 2020, SIX is Switzerland’s principal inventory change. It has listed a sequence of exchange-traded merchandise (ETPs) that present publicity to cryptocurrencies in a well-recognized and controlled tracker product.

SIX launched SDX in 2019 to offer a trusted cryptocurrency buying and selling platform for each institutional and retail merchants, however has since narrowed this down to only its skilled purchasers. Though initially slated for the summer time of 2019, a spate of exits on the govt stage means the SDX launch date has been pushed again to the top of 2020.

Based by former State Avenue executives, Omniex raised $5 million in a seed spherical in 2017. The corporate gives exchanges with the expertise to make sure best-execution and minimal slippage when buying and selling cryptocurrencies.

“Along with SIX we goal to supply an end-to-end resolution for the buying and selling and settlement of digital property, together with the SIX Digital Change (SDX), as soon as operationally dwell,” mentioned Omniex CEO and co-founder Hu Liang. “It can nonetheless take a while, however the cornerstones are in place to speed up the broader adoption of natively digitalized property.”