Germany Grants BaFin License to Financial Firm for STO Platform
Luxembourg-registered financial firm Black Manta Capital Partners has received a license from the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) for its Security Token Offering (STO) platform.
A regulated STO platform in Germany
Black Manta Capital Partners announced on Aug. 19 that its Berlin-based entity received a MiFID II license by BaFin for its regulated STO platform on Aug. 1 nine months after filing. Now, the company will be able to offer regulated brokerage services using blockchain technology.
On its platform, the firm represents rights to an asset as tokens managed by on-chain contracts. This system reportedly allows for new access to capital for small and medium-sized enterprises, real estate projects, startups, commodity markets or funds and new access to investments for new investors.
A firm with global ambitions
The issuance of such security tokens is regulated in Germany by the MiFID II Directive on Financial Instruments, and the first STOs are planned to be conducted in early Q4 2019. The company has also broader ambitions:
“Apart from the licenced operating entity in Berlin, Black Manta Capital Partners drive the market launch of their investment platform also through BMCP Consulting in Vienna and BMCP Limited for international business development, based at the Malta Stock Exchange in Valletta.”
The firm also plans to found Black Manta Asia, in Singapore, and apply for a similar license with the local monetary authority. Co-founder and managing partner Christian Platzer commented on the firm’s intentions:
“While Black Manta Capital Partners want to be ‘boutique’ in its beginnings and run ‘handpicked’ STOs only, our strategy is global from day one: the first step is to link Europe and Asia on one blockchain-based investment platform. Therefore we look already today into Singapore.”
As Cointelegraph reported in July, Latin America’s biggest investment bank, BTG Pactual, plans to shift its security token offerings (STOs), a pipeline of over $1 billion in sales, onto the Tezos blockchain.