CMC News

EU Blockchain Market Adds First Regulated Bank Participant

Swiss crypto bank #Amina has become the first fully regulated bank to join 21X, a blockchain-based securities platform operating under the #EuropeanUnion'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. #RWA

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