Independent consultancy firm Quinlan & Associates lauded the myriad of benefits from digital securities – speed, costs, accessibility and more – predicting a shift away from traditional securities as imminent.
In the past, firms seeking to raise funds via security token offerings (STO) simply issued white papers to lure new investors and capital. But after a brief rise, the STO market saw numerous scams emerge and price crashes before regulators stepped in with stringent requirements.
«That’s actually probably why this area didn’t take off in the past few years because the hurdles to raise capital through this channel were quite exorbitant,» Benjamin Quinlan, chief executive and managing partner of Quinlan & Associates, during the Global Digital Currency Forum 2021 this week.
«However, with everything going on in the regulatory environment, we see a shift to this space as not likely – its going to be inevitable.»
Digital Security Benefits
Although it retains the same financial characteristics of traditional securities, the blockchain technology behind enables numerous advantages for digital securities, most notably benefits related to decentralization and tokenization.
For issuers, Quinlan highlighted benefits like faster issuances, automated administrative processes and access to more investors.
And investors can benefit from a wider product suite, instantaneous settlement and 24-hour market access.
Crypto: «Not Something to Ignore»
Quinlan is bullish not only on digital securities but the broader digital asset market, including cryptocurrencies.
Since 2016, the crypto market capitalization has surged 122-fold to $2.2 trillion while transactional volumes have grown almost 7,000 times since 2013.
«Overall flow throughout the system is getting close to the global equities market as a whole. It’s a significant number and it’s not something to ignore,» Quinlan stressed. «I don’t consider that this momentum will stop. I reach out to the banks every other day and I can assure you many of them are interested in how to capitalize on the growth.»
- finews.asia is an official media partner of the Global Digital Currency Forum 2021.
