Key Takeaways
- Europe’s regulatory frameworks have matured, enabling real institutional blockchain finance.
- BX Digital and 21X are pioneering compliant on-chain market infrastructures.
- Chainlink plays a central role in cross-chain data and settlement infrastructure.
Europe has entered a new phase in its digital finance journey. With years of pilot programs and regulatory groundwork now solidified, regulated institutions are transitioning from experimentation to deployment.
As reflected in a recent report from Markets Media corroborated by Chainlink’s own tweet, Europe has all of the pieces in place to create compliant blockchain-based financial markets.
This evolution is supported by regulatory frameworks such as the EU’s DLT Pilot Regime, the UK’s DSS, Switzerland’s DLT Act, and MiCA. Though different in scope and application, together they create a cohesive regulatory framework facilitating the issuance, trading, and settlement of digital securities.
Legal ambiguity is no longer a constraint to market participants. Institutions can now get on board and launch platforms, acquire licenses, and include public blockchains such as Ethereum and Polygon in their systems.
Chainlink’s role in facilitating this transition, particularly with interoperability protocols and on-chain data security, is critical to preserving trust and connectivity in decentralized financial networks.
Chainlink Partnership Positions BX Digital
BX Digital, helmed by CEO Lidia Kurt, is a model of bringing traditional finance and public blockchain networks together. It was the first to be licensed by FINMA under Switzerland’s DLT Act.
Its design isolates infrastructure from asset layers to allow compliance on Ethereum and maintain institutional-grade standards of KYC and permissioning.
Kurt’s design supports off-chain trading and on-chain settlement in smart contracts with systems such as SIC to integrate with fiat. Importantly, a collaboration of the platform with Chainlink supports on-chain pricing of Swiss equities and reworks the distribution of financial information.
BX Digital also teases expansion to multiple chains utilizing either Chainlink’s CCIP or in-house deployment in the future. For Kurt, however, it goes beyond settlement, and he sees a completely different paradigm in data infrastructure with decentralized models.
21X Delivers Fully Onchain Regulated Markets
Located in Germany, 21X is the continent’s very first licensed MTF under the DLT Pilot Regime. CEO Max Heinzle helms 21X, which is natively on-chain and combines matching, settlement, and custody in a unified smart contract ecosystem.
The platform facilitates tokenized security trading in real-time through regulated stablecoins and without dependency upon traditional systems such as Target 2 or SIC.
The traction of the platform among institutions like ABN AMRO and Apex Group demonstrates its preparedness. Its involvement in the tests of European CBDC solidifies its regulatory compliance further.
21X also pursues a multichain approach with its initial deployment on Polygon, with plans to integrate more widely with DLT via Chainlink.
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