The Electronic Securities Act (eWpG) has been in force in Germany since June.

This abolishes the requirement for a printed global certificate for conventional securities, but above all establishes a legal framework for so-called crypto-securities.

In the future, bonds and participation certificates can also be issued on the basis of the blockchain.

These no longer have to be booked with the central depository, but can also be booked with a decentralized (crypto) depository.

Martin Hock

Editor in business.

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According to reports, there are so far four providers who have tried to obtain a provisional license. The Frankfurter Cashlink has already received this. “We are planning the first issues in early 2022,” says Marketing Director Benedikt Scheungraber. The planned projects include a convertible bond from the video system provider Artec Technologies and an issue from the financial platform Econos, which specializes in sustainable investments. “The emissions under the new law offer investors and issuers, thanks to the protection of good faith, greater legal certainty compared to earlier forms such as security tokens,” says Scheungraber - quite apart from cost advantages, because intermediaries such as trustees are not required with crypto papers, as the technology itself offers the necessary security .

The planned emissions have a value of less than 8 million euros and are therefore in the range that does not require a prospectus, in which less detailed information on emissions is required. Scheungraber anticipates that the new instrument will also be of interest for issues that require prospectus. He admits, however, that two practical obstacles will probably remain in the near future. On the one hand, crypto-securities according to the eWpG are technically not currently able to be booked by any custodian institution; on the other hand, there is no functioning secondary market. This is where the cat bites its tail: Without sufficient emissions, there are few incentives to invest in bookability or a secondary market. As long as this is not the case, the emissions boom will probably be a long time coming. But Scheungraber relies onthat issues on the private capital market will become more attractive and that this will attract the interest of the public capital market. “We therefore welcome every new player in the market,” he says. The candidates are Bank Hauck & Aufhäuser, but also Dekabank der Sparkassen, which is active in this field with its Swiat platform.

Jens Siebert from the Association of German Credit Platforms also recently complained at the Fintics 2021 discussion event that a “permeable infrastructure” was lacking.

With a view to the marketability of securities, it is important for the industry first of all that the EU abandons its obligation to hold securities centrally.

The expansion to GmbH shares and shares must also be a next step - the reporter of the SPD parliamentary group, Johannes Schraps, promised such further steps in the course of the discussion event for the near future.