Initial coin offerings have been coming thick and fast this year, with well in excess of $2 billion raised through token sales in 2017 to date.
Now, former Credit Suisse executive Marco Abele looks set to join the field, following the announcement of the ICO for his luxury ownership startup, Tend.
The ICO will raise funds for the firm’s shared ownership technology, which will run on the distributed server processing system, ethereum.
The technology is designed to allow trading in ownership in luxury goods like high end jewellery and sports cars, and will make use of dynamic contracts to automate transactions.
According to Abele, the platform will offer individuals access to high end goods through portional ownership, an innovative concept that relies on the ethereum blockchain.
Abele was most recently in post at Credit Suisse as the head of digital, but has also gained executive experience at Deutsche Bank. Discussing the concept behind Tend, he said there was a clear emerging market for shared ownership in luxury goods as an experience.
“Many people today are finding that there is more value in experience than ownership, and that it is about access to fine things, not just possession of them. At the same time, conventional investments have become uninteresting for the modern generation. That makes meaningful, special assets increasingly desirable and hence valuable.”
The ICO will see the launch of the Tend service, with tokens to be legally constructed as bonds under Swiss financial securities regulations for the first time.
The tokens will ultimately be used to represent the store of value of shared ownership rights through the Tend platform. Abele went further, committing to handling the “care of the associated obligations of the object owners, including insurance and logistics.”
ICOs have come under increasing scrutiny in recent months, following a spate of activity in the sector. Regulators including the US Securities and Exchange Commission announced some ICOs fall within the scope of securities laws, whereas authorities in China have banned ICOs altogether.
The firm is currently undertaking early stage testing, ahead of a launch predicted for some time over the coming months, with no firm date yet on the cards.
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