BNP Paribas invests in Kriptown to create the first tokenised stock exchange

It's not just in the United States that things are moving on tokenization. It's also happening in Europe.

The French crypto startup Kriptown has just completed a Series A round of 4.2 million euros, and one of the main investors is none other than the French bank BNP Paribas! As a reminder, BNP Paribas is the largest bank in the eurozone.

According to our information, negotiations lasted 18 months. The two other investors are Bpifrance and Centilux Family Office. An important point to note is that BNP Paribas and Bpifrance invested directly - and not through their funds - in the startup. "This is a sign that it's a strategic investment," explains Mark Kepeneghian, founder and president of Kriptown.

Founded in 2018, Kriptown, which is based in Paris and has already raised 1.35 million euros in 2022, has established itself as a key player in the emerging market of financial asset tokenization in France and Europe.

‍OUR REPORT: Is tokenization the future of finance?

‍"It took a long time, but we now have a legal framework with the pilot regime that allows the use of blockchain for business financing. SMEs will be able to conduct real IPOs — initial public offerings — on our platform. They will be considered as listed, and investors will benefit from a unique 24/7 secondary market for this asset class. They will be eligible for the PEA-PME, offering a welcome second wind to this investment wrapper," specifies Mark Kepeneghian.

"Huge potential savings"

Thanks to this fundraising, the startup of 14 employees will be able to do two things: invest in a new tokenization platform - developed with Hyperledger Besu, which is a private blockchain - and finance the obtainment of its European SNR DLT approval, which is the new regime (pilot regime, editor's note) specific to actors using blockchain. Only a few players have submitted an application.

"This approval allows for managing both the order book and the settlement-delivery of financial securities, meaning being both Euronext and Euroclear, which is revolutionary on a market scale," explains a banker. "There are huge potential savings," he adds. It's this opportunity that obviously attracted BNP Paribas and Bpifrance.

This operation comes at a time when financial players are increasingly interested in the topic of tokenization. This is the case in the United States with giants like BlackRock, which has launched its tokenized fund, and also in Europe with other banks like Société Générale Forge, Crédit Agricole, Santander or BBVA.