Our Managing Partner Thomas Nägele published his Master Thesis «Secondary Market for Security Tokens - The need for a new regulatory approach at the European Union level».
The secondary market for security tokens is now in the process of forming. In addition to questions related to securities law, regulatory law plays a major role as well. Under civil law, the claims and membership rights that are relevant for the capital market may be issued and transferred in the form of uncertified rights maintained on Trustworthy technologies (TT, e.g. DLT and Blockchain) systems - i.e. in the form of tokens. From a regulatory perspective, questions - some of them new - arise during trading, clearing and settlement as a result of the use of TT systems. It is becoming clear that authorisation to operate an MTF or OTF is relevant for the multilateral trading of security tokens. However, the obligation to book new securities issues from 2023 and all securities from 2025 in a book-entry account with a central securities depository as well as the clearing obligation for derivatives must be observed. There are questions as to whether these obligations are necessary with respect to TT systems and, taking account of the ratio legis, whether they are reasonable. A new technology appears to make the otherwise necessary trust in intermediaries obsolete and thus to make the secondary market for financial instruments much more efficient, more transparent and therefore more secure.
Find the full Master Thesis of Thomas Nägele here https://nlaw.li/smst
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.