OpenFinance creates regulated crypto Alternative Trading System

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OpenFinance, a U.S.-based security token trading platform, has unofficially announced the launch of a regulated alternative trading system (ATS) designed for security tokens. The company’s CEO, Juan Hernandez, noted that an official announcement will soon be released on the firm’s Medium account.

An ATS is a trading venue operated by an entity other than an exchange and is typically found in the U.S. and Canada. It is often regulated as a broker-dealer and works to find counterparties to conduct transactions for buyers and sellers.

The ATS offering comes following a partnership between OpenFinance and the Huobi crypto exchange, a move that should lead toward “a more regulated security token market and growing confidence in the U.S. market.” According to Hernandez, “We believe that security tokens are the future of finance, and that Huobi’s investment in our trading platform is reflective of the rising interest around the globe in this emerging financial ecosystem.”

Huobi’s head of Business Development and Investment for North America concurred with Hernandez. He said at the time, “Huobi Eco has always been committed to providing support and solutions for Huobi to operate within the compliant requirements of every country in which we do business. This is even more important as our market matures. We are looking forward to collaborating with OpenFinance and applying blockchain technology to revolutionize the financial technology market.”

Security tokens are those that have been classified as securities through the application of the Howey Test, an examination of the offering to determine whether or not it provides an option to contribute money and to participate in profit sharing. Additionally, the offering is defined as a security if it also allows for an investment of money when profits will come only from the efforts of other individuals.

In July, the Coinbase crypto exchange announced that it had been given approval by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as well as the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority to list crypto coins that had been deemed securities. However, Coinbase walked back the announcement a week later, saying that it had not been given approval by the SEC. It added that the communication it had maintained with the agency was only “informal” and the SEC affirmed that no approval had yet been given.

Note: Tokens on the Bitcoin Core (segwit) Chain are Referred to as BTC coins. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is today the only Bitcoin implementation that follows Satoshi Nakamoto’s original whitepaper for Peer to Peer Electronic Cash. Bitcoin BCH is the only major public blockchain that maintains the original vision for Bitcoin as fast, frictionless, electronic cash.