- Coinbase invests in Securitize, a new digital token firm has raised $12.75 million in initial funding
- Securitize plans to help fold tokenized their assets and is launching in 2019
- Coinbase, Blockchain Capital among the backers
A new project aims to infuse blockchain technology into the US securities market and has so far raised a remarkable $12.75 million in initial funding from a number of backers, most notably Coinbase Ventures, the Venture Capital arm of Coinbase.
This doesn’t come as much of a surprise as Coinbase has stated in the past that it intends to become the defacto place for the buying and selling of digital securities and thus, threw its weight behind Securitize, the new project.
About the Project
Securitize aims to help businesses create security tokens based on blockchain.
The ambitious project has already raised almost $13 million in funding through a series A round led by Blockchain Capital with additional backing by Japan’s Global Brain, Ripple’s Xpring fund and Coinbase Ventures.
Most of the investment was in form of fiat currency, though a small percentage of it was in form of digital currency which will eventually be converted to fiat currency or held on stablecoins.
The founder of Securitize, Carlos Domingo is a former CEO of Telefonica’s R&D division and also founded Spice, a tokenized Venture Capital firm.
According to him, Securitize was created as a way to disrupt the US securities market which is valued at over $7 billion per year.
The end goal of Securitize, he says, is to help the tokenization of assets be more transparent and efficient. For example, through their platform, investors can track cap tables in a manner that is concise and clear rather than the usual confusion that typically accompanies it.
As such, the platform itself won’t be used for actual trading but will instead help in the tokenizing of the assets and will help create regulatory management, services for investors, and smart contacts.
Securitize is also making sure it is online with SEC regulations and is working with compliance lawyers to ensure this.
He also feels encouraged by a latest SEC announcement which seems to show support for digital assets.
“The opportunity is not just to work with blockchain companies,” he explained in an interview. “These are first movers, but the big opportunity is in digitizing private and public shares.”
For now, Domingo is focused on the upcoming launch on Securitize and also for digital assets going beyond institutional investment and being traded to the public, something he feels will happen next year. ‘
“2019 will be the year that you see 10-15 exchanges trading securities in a legal way,” he predicted.
