Ex-FTX Europe chief files to trade tokenized stocks under new U.S. regulator rule
Nasdaq-listed Perpetuals.com becomes the second company to pursue a tokenized U.S. stock marketplace under the regulator's five-year exemption, after an OKX-New York Stock Exchange parent tie-up.
A former FTX Europe executive wants to bring tokenized U.S. stocks to public blockchains under a new five-year U.S. regulator exemption.
Perpetuals.com, a Nasdaq-listed fintech run by former FTX Europe chief Patrick Gruhn, has filed to operate a tokenized securities venue under the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's five-year innovation exemption. The notice, filed on Wednesday, makes the company the second to pursue that framework after a joint venture between crypto exchange OKX and New York Stock Exchange parent Intercontinental Exchange.
The exemption, introduced in September, lets certain marketplaces trade U.S. stocks on public blockchains without registering as traditional securities exchanges. Token holders must receive the same shareholder rights, including dividends and voting rights, and companies get 30 days to object to having their shares traded on a tokenized venue.
Gruhn is no stranger to tokenized equities. He co-founded Digital Assets AG, a Swiss firm that worked with German investment firm CM-Equity to create early digital tokens linked to stocks like Tesla and Coinbase. Digital Assets AG was later acquired by FTX Group and became part of FTX Europe, which Gruhn led before the crypto exchange collapsed in November 2022. Those older products gave price exposure but often lacked voting rights. Binance shut its stock tokens in July 2021 amid regulatory scrutiny, including concerns from German regulator BaFin about a missing securities prospectus.
How the venue would work
Perpetuals says trading would run through permissioned automated market maker (AMM) liquidity pools on Kronos X Public, an Ethereum-compatible layer-2 blockchain built by the company. AMMs use smart contracts and liquidity pools to match trades instead of traditional order books. Each pool would pair a tokenized U.S. stock with a digital asset, initially expected to be a U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin from Circle. A company spokesperson told CoinDesk trading could begin in mid-November at the earliest, depending on market-data, compliance and smart-contract security reviews.
The firm reported $65.2 million in total assets at the end of April and a $17.6 million net loss for its fiscal year. It also has a separate agreement with Datavault AI to support tokenized commodity offerings targeting more than $300 million in issuance.
The takeaway: Tokenized U.S. stocks are moving from crypto-exchange experiments to regulated, exchange-like venues, and the race is heating up.
Summary written by Oh Cannot from the original report by CoinDesk. Not financial advice.
