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Boerse Stuttgart, the ninth-largest stock exchange in Europe, has launched Germany’s first regulated trading venue for digital assets.
In a press release dated September 23, the German stock exchange said that trading has commenced on Boerse Stuttgart Digital Exchange (BSDEX), which is regulated under the German Banking Act.
Boerse Stuttgart Digital Exchange GmbH, a joint venture of Boerse Stuttgart GmbH, Axel Springer and finanzen.net announced in March, is the technical operator of BSDEX.
“BSDEX will give retail and institutional investors direct access to digital assets and provide flexible and relatively low-cost trading. We believe blockchain is set to bring about significant changes in the financial industry, and we want to leverage its potential to create the trading venue of the future,” Peter Großkopf, CTO at Boerse Stuttgart Digital Exchange GmbH, said.
BSDEX will execute investors’ orders directly against each other according to fixed rules. Currently, it is trading only one pair: bitcoin-euro. Investors can initially use market and limit orders, the release said, adding that further options will be launched soon.
BSDEX will charge transaction fees based on the type of order. However, there are no costs for users at the moment, the release added.
Boerse Stuttgart said that only selected users in Germany can currently directly connect to the trading venue, adding that the platform will be gradually opened up to other retail and also institutional investors. Registrations for opening new accounts are now open.
The German stock exchange first announced its plans to create the end-to-end infrastructure for digital assets back in August 2018. In December, it partnered with fintech company solarisBank to develop crypto trading venue. solarisBank AG is responsible for payment processing and the custody of customers’ cash deposits in Euro, the release said.
Earlier this year, Boerse Stuttgart launched cryptocurrency trading app BISON, which allows users to trade in Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and Ripple (XRP). In May, it launched exchange-traded notes (ETNs) on Litecoin (LTC) and Ripple (XRP) on its platform.
“BSDEX is the next step of Boerse Stuttgart Group in creating an end-to-end ecosystem for digital assets, thus driving the digital transformation of financial markets,” it said.
