The U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has granted a license to upcoming digital securities exchange and custodian Archax.

Why should we care?
Archax says it is the first FCA-regulated digital securities exchange and custodian in the U.K., which will allow digital issuances from around the world to trade on an FCA-regulated secondary market. The company also claims to be the first company to receive FCA cryptoasset registration. Archax seeks to modernize the legacy capital markets structure through the tokenization of assets, which means the process of embedding enforceable rights linked to an underlying asset into a digital token on a blockchain, where its movements and authenticity can be securely tracked and verified. “Blockchain and tokenization are innovations that can empower more frictionless and transparent markets which, combined with an FCA-regulated exchange like Archax, can deliver what capital providers, business leaders, and founders now really need,” said David Lester, non-executive director at Archax, which will launch later this year.