BnkToTheFuture Acquires Altcoin.io to Build Securities Token Exchange
The decentralized exchange and peer-to-peer trading solution (DEX) Altcoin.io announced on June 15, 2019, that its technology has been acquired by the investment firm BnkToTheFuture. With this acquisition, the Hong-Kong based online platform aims to build a compliant platform for trading security tokens.
Removing Middlemen on the Exchange
Altcoin.io was founded in 2017 and aimed to revolutionize how cryptocurrencies were traded. As BTCManager informed on Septemeber 9, 2018, the company raised around $930,000 from a total of 1,125 investors on WeFunder and has seen more than 110,000 traders pre-register for the platform since September 2017.
With this acquisition, BnkToTheFuture expands its market and takes a step further to become a similar platform to Nasdaq Private Market but focused exclusively on Blockchain and fintech startups.
BnkToTheFuture has already facilitated investments in high profile crypto businesses including Coinbase, Circle, BitStamp, BitFinex, Shapeshift, Ripple Labs, Kraken, and many others. The firm is also building its secondary market for trading equity in the largest companies in crypto.
To date, however, the Hong Kong startup has failed to develop the self-custodial trading engine. That’s where Altcoin.io comes into play.
Being a decentralized exchange, Altcoin.io provides crypto investors the possibility to trade without restrictions such as KYC/AML and enables peer-to-peer trades direct from users’ wallets, thus effectively removing the middleman from the exchange process.
Altcoin.io completed one the world’s first bitcoin to ether atomic swap and are currently working on second-layer solutions like Plasma.
Simon Dixon, the CEO of BnkToTheFuture, confirmed his enthusiasm for the acquisition of Altcoin.io, specifying that their non-custodial marketplace will be ready in 2020. Interested parties will be able to buy and sell security tokens integrated with the BnkToTheFuture Token (BFT).
Even though the security token market is in a very early stage at this point, Dixon believes it could be the biggest change to financial markets in decades.
