German financial regulator BaFin has granted 21X the first licence under the EU's DLT Pilot Regime for a fully regulated blockchain-based trading and settlement system — a landmark regulatory development that creates a compliant route for the complete lifecycle of tokenised securities in the European Union.
21X planned a Q1 2025 Frankfurt launch covering tokenised equities, debt securities, funds, and qualifying real-world assets. Uniquely, the platform handles the entire securities lifecycle on-chain: issuance, listing, trading, and atomic settlement — eliminating the fragmented infrastructure that typically separates these functions across multiple intermediaries in traditional markets.
Partners include Polygon for blockchain infrastructure, Apex Group for fund administration, and SBI Digital Markets for distribution — a combination that covers the technology, operational, and market access requirements for a regulated securities venue.
The DLT Pilot Regime, introduced by the EU in 2023, created a regulatory sandbox specifically designed to allow market infrastructure operators to test blockchain-based trading and settlement without needing to comply with all existing securities law requirements. BaFin's decision to grant 21X the first licence under this framework is a signal that European regulators are prepared to move from framework design to operational approvals.
The significance extends beyond 21X itself. A regulated, fully on-chain securities venue in Frankfurt provides a template for how tokenised capital markets infrastructure can operate within existing regulatory frameworks — which has been the missing piece for institutional adoption of tokenised securities at scale.