The Borse exchange had a trading volume of approximately $95 (Euro 81) billion for all its asset classes in 2017 and announced it is developing a fully-fledged cryptocurrency trading platform called “Bison,” for ICO offerings which will support Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, and Litecoin to pioneer the financial industry’s digital transformation.

The Borse Stuttgart said it is creating an end-to-end digital assets infrastructure which will complement the trading app Bison which is scheduled for launch in early 2019. The Bison platform aims to be the first crypto app to have a fully regulated ecosystem and backing from the traditional stock exchange.

According to Finextra, Alexander Höptner, CEO at Borse Stuttgart, said, the move to develop the crypto trading platform is a response to the growing “demand for both institutional and retail investors for a regulated and reliable environment for trading with cryptocurrencies. Borse aims to provide the central services along the value chain for digital assets under one roof.” Therefore developing a full-service infrastructure that will include safe custody solutions for both established cryptos such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) and the digital assets.

The local Data Analytics startup ‘Sowa Labs,’ develops the bison platform which the Borse acquired in Dec 2017 as a part of its roadmap for achieving its ambitious digital strategy. Apart from cryptocurrencies, the international stock exchanges are evaluating to integrate the underlying blockchain technology to increase the security and efficiency of the operations.

“An ICO platform will allow the issuance of digital tokens for corporate financing or to represent rights and assets. The platform will also make it possible to carry out ICOs with transparent and standardised processes.” SEC chairman, Jay Clayton, has said that the vast majority of ICOs are actually securities offerings, and U.S. regulators have already investigated several projects. With institutional players such as Borse Stuttgart coming into play, we are perhaps going to see the ICO market embark on the path towards maturity.

Another significant development in the crypto industry which was announced by Swiss Stock Exchange’s parent company, The SIX Group – The exchange’s new digital platform to feature a range of services for the crypto market. The platform is set for launch in mid-2019 will offer not only ICO consulting but also include tradeable assets. The SIX Group aims to create a “fully regulated” ecosystem for cryptocurrencies and its associated technology.

To summarise, I am extremely impressed to see that the financial industry is heading for a significant disruption of building the cryptocurrency platform which will be regulated and present an authorised form of currency trading. I believe that it becomes imperative that the Asian markets should also be considering moving in the similar direction to keep the pace with the rest of the global markets.

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