Switzerland's SIX Stock Exchange Is Building a Blockchain-based Platform for Digital Assets

Switzerland's SIX Stock Exchange Is Building a Blockchain-based Platform for Digital Assets

Switzerland continues to be one of the world’s premiere hotspots for innovation in the blockchain space. Zurich-based SIX Swiss Exchange, one of two stock exchanges in the country, has announced it is building an infrastructure called Six Digital Exchange (SDX) for the trading, settlement and custody of digital assets. According to the announcement, the system is primarily based on distributed ledger technology (blockchain).

Before we get too excited – some outlets are saying that SDX will be a cryptocurrency exchange, but there is no confirmation, as far as we can tell, that the platform will support cryptocurrency trading. The press release indicates that the goal of the new platform will be the trading of digital assets and the tokenization of existing securities and non-bankable assets, but cryptocurrency (even though it is most definitely a type of digital asset) is not mentioned specifically. SIX does, however, list a Bitcoin exchange-traded note issued by Vontobel.

In a reply to Blockstream CEO Adam Back, the official SIX Twitter account said that they cannot yet confirm whether the platform will support cryptocurrencies in the future:

Whether it will support cryptocurrency or not, the Six Digitial Exchange is still significant, as the adoption of blockchain technology from stock exchanges has been rather slow, with research showing that only about 5% of market infrastructure providers have already implemented blockchain-based tools.

The tokenization of existing financial assets is an exciting area, and it is already being worked on by projects such as Polymath. According to the Polymath team, some of the key features of this approach are increased control over equity issuance, 24/7 trading, and elimination of middlemen.

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