The major traditional exchanges have adapted well to the migration of transactional activity to other trading platforms, notably by developing their data and post-trade revenues, so it is surprising that they remain indifferent to tokenisation. With some notable exceptions, traditional stock exchanges have shown little interest in the revolutionary potential of issuing, trading and servicing tokens. Explanations for this indifference vary. Some say the existing markets (especially equity trading) are already so efficient that tokenisation is unnecessary. The fact that exchanges which have invested in tokenisation have yet to earn a return, and are now making economies, is not encouraging. If tokenisation ever does take off, add some larger exchanges, they could simply acquire the successful platforms. The long lists of intermediaries that stand between issuers and investors – global brokers, local brokers, clearing houses, securities depositories, payments banks, custodian banks and so on – also have limited incentives to encourage the emergence of peer-to-peer exchanges. So even the leading traditional stock exchange groups are focusing on a narrow range of token opportunities, such as cryptocurrencies and privately managed assets, and leaving potential lavish operational cost savings and new product earnings untouched. Dominic Hobson, co-founder of Future of Finance, moderated a discussion of about traditional stock exchanges and tokenisation with Marco Kessler, business head of digital securities at six Digital Exchange SDX, Hirander Misra, chairman and CEO of GMEX Group, Ricardo Correia, a partner in the financial services practice at Bain and Company, Benedikt Schuppli, co-founder and CBDO at Obligate and Miryusup Abdullaev, managing director of the Deutsche Börse Digital Exchange (DBDX).

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