A recent ruling by FINMA, Switzerland’s market watchdog, has resulted in the granting of two licenses to the firm SIX Digital Exchange, the newly anticipated digital arm of the country’s stock exchange SIX. The licenses will permit SIX Digital Exchange to operate a stock exchange and depository for blockchain-based securities. Such a digital entity can also be referred to as a digital bourse. A bourse is a marketplace for the trade of securities, commodities, derivatives or other financial instruments, and may provide, in this case, a regulated alternative to the largely unregulated crypto exchange space. Binance, the world’s leading crypto exchange, has come under fire recently from authorities in Singapore and South Africa being the most recent, highlighting how the lack of regulation is affecting the operation of exchanges globally.
