EU Blockchain Market Adds First Regulated Bank Participant

The arrangement is structured through a collaboration with Tokeny, a Luxembourg-based firm that builds technology for issuing and managing tokenized financial assets.

Crypto News

Swiss crypto bank Amina has become the first fully regulated bank to join 21X, a blockchain-based securities platform operating under the European Union’s distributed ledger technology pilot framework. Amina, headquartered in Zug, Switzerland, announced Monday that it has taken on the role of listing sponsor on the venue.

The arrangement is structured through a collaboration with Tokeny, a Luxembourg-based firm that builds technology for issuing and managing tokenized financial assets. Through that partnership, Amina will support companies that want to issue tokenized securities on the 21X platform.

21X received its operating permit under the EU’s DLT pilot regime in December 2024. The regime, introduced in 2023, allows market operators to run blockchain-based trading and settlement systems within a defined regulatory test environment. It is designed to let regulators assess how distributed ledger technology fits into existing capital market infrastructure.

The partnership addresses an obstacle that has slowed institutional adoption of tokenized assets. Baker McKenzie’s European Financial Services practice identified a lack of interoperability between tokenized asset platforms as a central barrier in a June analysis. Zurich partner Yves Mauchle wrote that scale in tokenized markets can only be achieved when large numbers of participants transact across common or interconnected systems.

The EU’s DLT pilot regime has also drawn criticism from industest participants. Some have warned that current caps and limitations within the framework could prevent European blockchain markets from scaling rapid enough to compete with other jurisdictions. Whether the addition of a regulated bank alters that trajectory is not yet clear.

The broader market for tokenized real-world assets continues to grow. Total tokenized RWA value has reached $26.5 billion, according to RWA(dot)xyz. In the United States, institutions including BNY, Nasdaq, and S&P Global have backed the expansion of the Canton Network. Eight EU-regulated digital asset firms wrote to policybuildrs in February warning that the bloc risks falling behind the U.S. in developing tokenized financial markets.

Kraken launched tokenized securities trading for European applyrs through its xStocks platform in September, offering blockchain-based versions of U.S.-listed equities. Tokenization platform Ondo received regulatory approval in Liechtenstein two months later to offer tokenized equity products to European investors. Amina’s relocate to join 21X adds one more regulated institution to Europe’s developing blockchain capital market infrastructure.

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