A New Giant Backed Crypto Ecosystem In Works

Linas Kmieliauskas
Last updated: | 2 min read

Boerse Stuttgart Group (BSG), the operator of the second-largest stock exchange in Germany, and Japanese financial giant SBI Group has partnered in order to create a “global end-to-end ecosystem for digital assets.” (Updated at 12:34 PM UTC: updates in bold)

Source: iStock/Marc Bruxelle

At this stage, there is no timeline when this ecosystem might be created, as the partnership hast just been established, a spokesperson for Boerse Stuttgart told Cryptonews.com

Moreover, SBI Holdings will invest in Boerse Stuttgart Digital Exchange GmbH (BSDEX) and plans to invest in Boerse Stuttgart Digital Ventures GmbH (BSDV), BSG said on Friday.

The acquisition of a 10% stake in BSDEX should be completed as soon as possible, while contract details still need to be clarified, the spokesperson said. BSDEX, is a joint venture of Boerse Stuttgart, Axel Springer, a major European publishing house, and finanzen.net, the finance news website owned by Axel Springer. All existing stakeholders are selling their respective stakes, the spokesperson said, adding that the company does not comment on the financial details of the investment.

Meanwhile, details of the planned investment into BSDV are still to be evaluated, according to the spokesperson.

Alexander Höptner, Chairman of the Management Board of Boerse Stuttgart, said that besides the exchange of knowledge and technology, possible fields of collaboration include the cross issuance and listing of digital assets, trading and brokerage as well as the creation of the global custody bridge.

“The SBI Group, including its crypto-asset trading platform and other related business operating companies, will fully make use of the collaboration with Boerse Stuttgart Group, to well-establish the actual demands of the digital asset throughout the world,” Yoshitaka Kitao, President of SBI Holdings, who is also a board member of Ripple (XRP), a blockchain company focusing on the payments technologies.

As reported, in September, Boerse Stuttgart launched BSDEX, which is the Germany’s first regulated trading venue for digital assets. While trading on the platform was initially launched for selected users, starting December it is now open to all investors based in Germany. BSDEX might be opened for other countries of the European Union in 2020, the spokesperson said.

“The next step is the creation of a primary market platform that will allow companies the issuance of digital tokens, for corporate financing or to represent rights and assets, for instance,” Dirk Sturz, CEO of Boerse Stuttgart Digital Exchange, told Cryptonews.com back then.

Boerse Stuttgart Digital Ventures is leading the digitization strategy of BSG. Its subsidiaries are Sowa Labs GmbH, who has developed the cryptocurrency trading app Bison, and blocknox GmbH, a custodian for digital assets.

Meanwhile, SBI has also been active in the crypto and blockchain industries since 2016. This week, it was announced that SBI has struck a deal with OneConnect, part of the Chinese insurance giant Ping An Group. The companies have agreed to launch a recently formed company in Japan, with the aim of revitalizing smaller, regional Japanese banks using blockchain technology and fintech solutions.

Also, SBI is considering issuing XRP tokens as company-wide shareholder rewards.

In October, the group said that SBI VC Trade and SBI Crypto are both making money for the company. The exchange business has posted pre-tax profits of USD 30 million, with SBI Crypto posting pre-tax profits of USD 2.7 million – despite a 17% decrease in the group’s overall financial performance.