Deutsche Börse and Commerzbank have announced a new partnership with FinTech, 360X, to develop a next-generation digital asset trading platform.
The partnership will involve the creation of a new blockchain-based digital marketplace and ecosystem for existing real asset classes such as art and real estate, planned for this year.
Deutsche Börse, Commerzbank and 360X will combine their strengths and jointly work on digital marketplaces of the future to generate new revenue potential.
Carlo Kölzer, founder and CEO of 360X, explained that the new trading platform facilitates investment in asset classes that have so far been illiquid.
“Our mantra is ‘Making Things Investable – Bridging the Gap between Asset Classes and Capital Markets’. We create transparent and liquid trading venues for assets that have not yet existed in digital markets. We are therefore starting with trading venues for art and real estate. 360X is set up as a high scalable model so further asset classes will follow,” said Kölzer.
360T, the electronic foreign exchange trading platform that was acquired by Deutsche Börse in 2019, was founded in Frankfurt by Kölzer and his team in 2000.
The assets will be made investable and tradable via tokenisation and fractionalisation. Tokenised real assets are mapped on blockchain to facilitate access for investors and allow the fractionalisation of the underlying asset.
“I am convinced that Deutsche Börse has to venture into new asset classes. In the future, we will see a broad tokenisation and digitisation of assets that are not tradable today. 360X is the new innovative platform for serial marketplace creation that we are building with our partners,” said Theodor Weimer, CEO of Deutsche Börse.
The partnership is the latest between Deutsche Börse and Commerzbank, with the pair carrying out the successful settlement of tokenised shares executed via distributed ledger technology (DLT) for the first time in 2019.
“We take real assets to digital marketplaces. With our and Deutsche Börse’s investment in 360X, we see the potential to actively shape one of the digital asset ecosystems of the future,” said Manfred Knof, CEO of Commerzbank.