Briefing
Securitize has secured a DLT Pilot Regime license from Spain’s CNMV, establishing the first and only regulated digital securities infrastructure capable of bridging the United States and European Union markets. This strategic regulatory capture immediately positions the firm to dismantle geographical barriers in capital markets, allowing the same tokenized assets to be traded and settled across both major jurisdictions. The initiative’s scale is quantified by the firm’s existing $4.6 billion in assets under management, which now has a clear regulatory pathway for cross-continental expansion.
Context
Traditional securities markets are characterized by fragmented national clearing systems, siloed data, and complex, multi-day settlement cycles (T+2 or T+3) that inflate counterparty risk and operational costs for cross-border transactions. This inefficiency is compounded by the regulatory divergence between the US and EU, forcing institutional investors to manage separate, non-interoperable pools of capital and compliance frameworks for the same underlying assets.
Analysis
The adoption fundamentally alters the post-trade operational mechanics by replacing legacy Central Securities Depositories (CSDs) with a single, regulated Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) Trading and Settlement System (TSS). The cause-and-effect chain is clear → the DLT platform, built on Avalanche, enables atomic settlement, meaning the exchange of the tokenized security and the corresponding payment is instantaneous and simultaneous (T+0). For the enterprise and its partners, this systemic shift eliminates settlement risk, drastically improves capital velocity, and establishes a unified compliance and data standard for a global pool of assets, directly creating value by transforming illiquid, geographically-constrained assets into highly efficient, fungible digital instruments.
Parameters
- Regulatory Framework → EU DLT Pilot Regime
- DLT System License → DLT Trading and Settlement System (TSS)
- Blockchain Protocol → Avalanche
- Jurisdictional Scope → United States and European Union
- Assets Under Management (AUM) → $4.6 Billion
- Key Backers → BlackRock, Morgan Stanley, Hamilton Lane
Outlook
The successful deployment of this cross-jurisdictional TSS sets a critical precedent for future global market infrastructure, signaling the convergence of traditional finance and DLT under a single regulatory umbrella. The next phase will involve onboarding a critical mass of institutional issuers and asset managers, pressuring competitors to pursue similar regulatory approvals to avoid being locked out of a unified, 24/7 global liquidity pool. This initiative effectively establishes the blueprint for a new, digitally-native global securities standard, accelerating the tokenization of all real-world assets.
Verdict
This regulatory breakthrough is the definitive architectural step required to transition tokenized assets from a niche product to the core, interoperable settlement layer of global capital markets.
