Blockchain technology has come a long way. The industry has seen rapid growth in its revolutionary decentralized model, and most of the improvements and adoption has happened this year.
One thing that is synonymous with blockchain is digital currencies or cryptocurrencies. These are the native assets of blockchains, and they have tokens built into them using smart contracts. In general, there are two types of tokens: utility tokens and security tokens.
Crypto users are more familiar with utility tokens than security tokens, and the reason for that is simple – they are more common.
Imagine chips in a casino – that is what utility tokens are like. They are used as the native currency within the casino to play games or tip dealers and then they are converted back to fiat/cash when the player wants to cash out, just like with the cryptocurrencies we have today.
We should add that players who hold the casino chips do not own a stake in the casino for holding, and they are also not entitled to a share of the casino’s profits.
With security tokens, however, it’s different. Security tokens are like owning stock (shares) in the casino and when the company (re: house) wins, the shareholder wins too. It is safe to say that while security tokens give you ownership of an ecosystem, utility tokens are used in that ecosystem.
In essence, security tokens are blockchain-based digital contracts embedded in the network for fractions of existing assets like real estate, cars, or corporate stock.
The idea of security token offerings (STOs) evolved from initial coin offerings (ICOs), which refers to the distribution of utility tokens to raise capital from investors.
When Ethereum launched in 2014, ICOs became a household name and were successfully issued for several securities until around 2016. The success of ICOs brought about an increased number of scams which ruined the reputation of projects going the ICO way. This led to the development of STOs. STOs provide a guild of regulation, compliance, and tokenization around transactions affecting digital assets.
After the 2017 crash of ICOs, the roots for STOs were planted and by 2018, it had started to gain traction when about 28 STOs raised a collective value of $442 million during that year. Those statistics continued to improve, as shown with PWC’s 6th ICO/STO report in 2020 when over $4 billion was said to have been raised through 380 token offerings.
The market of STOs is not relenting though, as tokenization of assets and the market is expected to reach exponential growths in the future. A CAGR of 59% from 2019 to 2030 has been predicted.
Unlike utility tokens, security tokens have always been under much greater scrutiny by regulators. These regulatory bumps are one of the reasons why the growth and general adoption of security tokens have been very modest.
This is starting to change in recent years as the SEC begins to qualify STOs. In July 2019, the first Regulation A token offering, a $23 million offering for Blockstack, was qualified by the SEC and this set a precedent. The sale of tokens that can be immediately tradable by accredited and non-accredited investors was suddenly possible and this provided clarity around secondary sales.
Arca Labs began trading its security token, the ArCoin in July 2020. ArCoin is registered with the SEC and represents shares in Arca’s U.S Treasury Fund. This is another example of STO acceptance from a private entity by the SEC.
Other significant movements along these lines happened in September 2020 when the SEC registered an $85 million STO from INX, a foreign crypto trading company and qualified Reg A+ token offering for Exodus. Subsequently, Exodus raised $75 million from 6,800 individual investors.
To show that security tokens aren’t happening solely in the U.S., in May 2021, a bank based in Singapore issued its first STO, an $11.3 million digital bond that pays 0.6% in the annual coupon.
While all of these investments may appear relatively small, it is their significance that is important here. They are marking a significant transition in the crypto industry and would herald massive adoption.
The value of security tokens looks very promising in several markets. When it comes to stocks, some private firms have already achieved the level where they can scale and will attract many investors if they decide to offer security tokens seeing that that is now very possible with the SEC’s approval.
By tokenizing equity rights for pre-IPO companies, many blockchain projects are now directly undercutting the old model of using ICOs. It is clear how much value security tokenization currently holds, especially in the private markets. There are billions in STOs coming to the market and they are seeking liquidity solutions. IX Swap is well-positioned to provide the services this multi-billion dollar STO market needs as it continues to grow and expand.
Interested in exploring security tokens? Visit IX Swap now and sign up at https://app.ixswap.io/ to kickstart your STO trading journey today.
About IX Swap
IX Swap is a next-generation platform that leverages DeFi services backed by regulatory compliance to facilitate safe and convenient issuance, listing, and trading of security tokens and fractionalized NFTs.
By bridging the gap between traditional finance and innovative blockchain-based solutions, IX Swap is paving the way in democratizing access to traditional financial markets that have never been done before.
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