Tuesday, May 28, 2024

tokenization for status, crypto ETNs in London, BTC vs ETH in bull runs, liquidity

“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” – Wayne Dyer ||

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a great long weekend. I sure did – the weather in Madrid now is just gorgeous.

In today’s newsletter, I dive into tokenization moves in Japan, and what they say about local competitiveness. I also look at the unexciting launch of crypto spot ETPs in London, at BTC vs ETH in bull runs, and at moves in ETH liquidity.

If you find this newsletter useful, would you mind sharing it with your friends and colleagues? ❤

IN THIS NEWSLETTER:

• Tokenization and regional competition in Japan

• Crypto ETNs on the London Stock Exchange

• BTC vs ETH in bull runs

• ETH liquidity

If you’re not a subscriber to the premium daily, I hope you’ll consider becoming one! You’ll get ~daily insight into the growing overlap between the crypto and macro landscapes, as well as some useful links. And there’s a free trial!

WHAT I’M WATCHING:

Tokenization and regional competition in Japan

You know that security tokenization is leaving the realm of experimentation and starting its mainstream journey when governments start actively encouraging businesses to get involved.

Last month, Tokyo announced a subsidy program for security tokens, covering up to two thirds of the issuance costs, including platform fees, advisors and system development.

This is interesting on many fronts, but I’ll mention two: one is that a local government really wants more actual live token issuances.

Another is that this feels like a move to compete with Osaka. I confess I haven’t been to either (I know, must fix!), but Perplexity AI tells me that Osaka is both smaller and noticeably more “laid back” than Tokyo. California to Tokyo’s New York, as it were.

Here’s an image the AI helpfully threw out for me:

(by Perplexity AI – I’m not sure what the rules are for crediting these things?)

With less than one fifth of Tokyo’s population, Osaka is the seat of one of only two active tokenization platforms directly owned by legacy market infrastructure firms. Osaka Digital Exchange (ODX) is majority-owned by SBI Holdings, one of Japan’s largest financial services conglomerates. Other key shareholders are financial giants Sumitomo Mitsui, Nomura and Daiwa Securities.

The other is SDX in Switzerland, which launched in 2021. SDX is majority-owned by SIX Group, a consortium of around 120 banks that run the Swiss stock exchange.