Lendingblock, a securities lending platform for digital assets, today announces the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission (GFSC) has made an in-principle decision to grant the firm authorization as a Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) provider.
The in-principle authorization comes simultaneously with Lendingblock’s completion of its platform testing period conducted with over 30 institutions worldwide. This puts the firm well on track to launch the world’s first institutional digital assets lending exchange as a fully regulated DLT provider early in the new year.
Following this in-principle decision and the successful testing period, the Lendingblock platform is open for institutional onboarding in preparation for launch. Market participants are now able to sign up for access and will be able to commence borrowing and lending BTC, ETC, BCH, and LTC across various maturities from early next year.
“As a true believer in the importance of getting our industry into regulatory shape, seeking authorization from a leading regulator was always a priority for us. The GFSC has developed one of the most advanced DLT regulatory frameworks in the world and this in-principle decision is a tremendous achievement. Securities lending is an important aspect of most traditional market participants’ return generating strategy and we see it as a particularly relevant to the crypto economy. Our technology and collaborative work with regulators and partners has enabled us to create the market and financial infrastructure needed to meet the demand for trading digital assets on an institutional level.”
The firm reports they are also in discussion with several other regulators globally to ensure that the exchange meets its strategic aim to operate on a duly licensed basis for all territories in which it operates.