Assetera launches secondary tokenized RWA market on Polygon

Polygon will host Assetera, Europe’s first blockchain-based regulated secondary market for tokenized real-world assets (RWAs). Assetera is regulated by the Austrian Financial Market Authority. It will deploy smart contracts developed in-house on the blockchain.

Assetera will target retail, professional, and institutional clients, offering tokenized financial instruments — transferable securities, money market instruments, fund units and derivatives — as well as tokenized RWAs such as real estate and art.

Always on, atomic and regulated

Assetera will execute trading activities directly on the Polygon network utilizing stablecoins for purchase, clearing and settlement through atomic swaps. Trading will be available around the clock without manual intervention. Assetera CEO Thomas Labenbacher said in a statement provided to Cointelegraph:

This opens up a world of possibilities for asset owners and investors, so that there is a level of liquidity and accessibility previously unimaginable. The […] Polygon Proof-of-Stake mechanism ensure[s] that we can scale this revolutionary platform sustainably […] without compromising on security or regulatory compliance.

Assetera supports custodial and non-custodial wallets and the introduction of bank-managed wallets. It partners with Sumsub, Chainalysis and Fireblocks for Anti-Money Laundering measures.

Compliance in the midst of regulatory change

Assetera has a comprehensive Markets in Financial Instruments Directive 2018 (MiFID II) license and a virtual asset service provider (VASP) license. Digital assets that are financial instruments are regulated under MiFID II even with the implementation of Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) legislation.

MiFID II does not define what a financial instrument is. Rather it provides examples, leaving the details to individual countries. The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) released a consultative document on the definition of a financial instrument in April.

In July, ESMA teamed up with the European Banking Authority and the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority to try again at crypto asset classification.

MiCA provisions regarding stablecoins came into force on July 1, ahead of other parts of the regulatory framework. That led to an immediate sorting out of the market, with noncompliant stablecoin sales blocked in Europe and new compliant stablecoins emerging.