INX has spear its first securities token issued by a public company, according to an April 3 announcement from the tokenization platform.
Shares of public companies on the blockchain?
Witness the future in action!
Proud to team up with @Greenbriarcorp to symbolize its traditional GEBRF actions in an industry first!https://t.co/sS4p5MIwa3— INX (@INX_Group) April 3, 2023
The new token represents shares of Greenbriar Capital, which are traded in non-tokenized form on the U.S. over-the-counter (OTC) market under the symbol GEBRF and on the Toronto Stock Exchange as GRB.
Greenbriar is a developer of entry-level housing and green energy products. This is the first time its shares have been available for trading on a public blockchain network.
According to the platform help files, INX security tokens exist on the Ethereum network and comply to the ERC-1404 simple restricted token standard. When a user purchases security tokens through INX, they must whitelist their Ethereum address by signing a message via Metamask. The smart contract keeps track of addresses that have been whitelisted, and if a user tries to transfer tokens to an address that is not whitelisted, the transfer fails.
INX claims that it does not hold any security tokens on behalf of users, as these tokens are only held in the user’s wallet.
To manage Ethereum gas fees, the platform currently charges a $25 commission for each security token purchased, according to the app’s UI.
Related: Signum Digital Obtains Approval to Offer Security Tokens in Hong Kong
INX has previously listed two other security tokens on its platform: INX, which represents shares of the platform’s own company and MSCO, which represents shares of art studio MS Token. However, these previous tokens represented private companies, while GEBRF is the first public company with complete financial information to join the INX platform, according to the announcement.
INX also offers traditional cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Zcash (ZEC) and others.
Cryptocurrency developers have often tried to avoid having their tokens classified as securities, as this designation requires developers to provide detailed information to the Securities and Exchange Commission and other government agencies. However, some experts claim that the tokenization of securities will bring benefits to the traditional financial sector.
In September, KKR’s Health Care Strategic Growth Fund II (HCSG II) was tokenized on the Avalanche Network (AVAX) with the help of Securitize Capital. And in October, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange announced it was testing a token bond trading program. Ralf Kubli of the Casper Association argued that tokenized mortgage-backed securities will be key to preventing future financial crises.
