- Two leading companies from the financial sector and an experienced team of fintech founders combine their strengths at financial centre Frankfurt
- Partners capitalise new entity 360X, driving the serial construction and operation of new marketplaces and ecosystems for digital asset classes
- Investments in art and real estate defined as initial asset classes
Deutsche Börse and Commerzbank are entering a strategic partnership with fintech 360X to develop new blockchain-based digital marketplaces and ecosystems for existing real asset classes such as art and real estate.
In order to achieve this, the partners combine their strengths: Deutsche Börse as experienced market infrastructure operator, Commerzbank as partner for the digital banking world of tomorrow, and 360X’s experienced team of fintech founders will jointly work on digital marketplaces of the future to generate new revenue potential. The first reference transaction (minimum viable product) for two asset classes is planned for this year.
The new trading platform facilitates investment in asset classes that have so far been illiquid, explains Carlo Kölzer, founder and CEO of 360X. “Our mantra is ‘Making Things Investable – Bridging the Gap between Asset Classes and Capital Markets’. We create transparent and liquid trading venues for assets that have not yet existed in digital markets. We are therefore starting with trading venues for art and real estate. 360X is set up as a highly scalable model so further asset classes will follow.” Carlo Kölzer and his team founded 360T, the world's leading electronic foreign exchange trading platform, in Frankfurt in 2000.
Trading assets on blockchain basis
The assets will be made investable and tradable via tokenisation and fractionalisation. Tokenised real assets are mapped on blockchain to facilitate access for investors and allow the fractionalisation of the underlying asset.
The three partners maintain the highest standards of legal certainty, data protection, and compliance with regulatory frameworks as well as for the establishment of an orderly secondary market.
Threefold expertise for new digital markets
Carlo Kölzer: “360X aims at a megatrend. Digital assets are an exponential growth market. We create new ecosystems and offer investors innovative investment opportunities in assets which they did not have access to before. This creates added value for the financial sector.”
Theodor Weimer, CEO of Deutsche Börse AG: “I am convinced that Deutsche Börse has to venture into new asset classes. In the future, we will see a broad tokenisation and digitisation of assets that are not tradable today. 360X is the new innovative platform for serial marketplace creation that we are building with our partners.”
Manfred Knof, CEO of Commerzbank AG: “We take real assets to digital marketplaces. With our and Deutsche Börse’s investment in 360X we see the potential to actively shape one of these digital asset ecosystems of the future. Commerzbank has many years of experience with DLT technology and is a sought-after expert in the emerging asset universe. With pilot transactions in the areas of payments, securities and trade finance, as well as strategic partnerships with technology and internet companies, and cooperation with DLT networks, Commerzbank is a reliable partner in tomorrow’s digital banking.”
Deutsche Börse and Commerzbank have longstanding experience with DLT technology, with joint pilot transactions having been executed via DLT for the first time in 2019.
