Swiss Exchange SIX Announces the Launch of a New Trading Platform

After prolonged bear market in 2018, this year has come up with many expectations of re-surge in the crypto market. Considering this year as an opportunity, major financial giants have launched their plans. Recently, largely famous stock exchange of Switzerland, ‘SIX Swiss Exchange’ has announced that it has scheduled the launch of its new blockchain-powered exchange, named SIX Digital Exchange (SDX), in the second half of 2019.

SIX has revealed that it will examine blockchain integration for its upcoming digital trading platform SDX. Here, the blockchain will be used to establish a connection between traditional finance and the technology of cryptocurrencies. The new platform is planned to operate parallel to the existing SIX platforms. The stock exchange’s CEO Jos Dijsselhof said that SIX has opted the technology to gain advantages such as time efficiency and improved security. He stated that the chosen technology could offer these advantages across all stages of stock trading and settlement. He notes,

“The fact is, it takes two days for the buyer of stock to become the owner. The trade itself only takes a fraction of a second, but after that payments have to be settled and titles transferred. If we put it all on our digital exchange, then the whole process takes only a few seconds. This makes the market more efficient, but at the same time also takes risks out of the system. “

Additionally, at a Swiss Finance Institute conference, SIX Group’s chairman, Romeo Lacher reportedly said that the firm is set to include more digital currencies to its exchange platform. He firmly asserts that the SDX digital exchange will completely replace the existing system in 10 years. He gave more details about the new launch. According to Lacher, the exchange will provide service for selected stocks in its initial stage. Following bonds and exchange-traded funds, stocks will be added once the platform starts operating fully. Later it will also enable tokenizing other securities and non-tradeable assets like paintings or vintage cars. Concluding, Lacher noted,

“We want to start with our own Security Token Offering. The supervisory board will probably decide (on the project)in late summer.”

Notably, the SIX’ newly announced SDX will work under FINMA’s regulation and supervision. SIX Swiss Exchange holds around 5.19 billion Swiss Francs (CHF) (~$5.18 billion) in daily turnover.