EMBARGOED BY THURSDAY, JUNE 29, AT 08:00 AM

MADRID, 29 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) –

Bit2Me and Openbank are on the list of projects provisionally admitted in the fifth call for the financial ‘sandbox’, along with Quantum Markets and Tokn1, according to the resolution of the General Secretariat of the Treasury and International Financing.

On the one hand, Bit2Me enters this ‘sandbox’ to develop its Security Tokens Exchange (STX) project, which will be under the supervision of the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV), while Openbank has four projects to test the possibility of carrying out banking operations through the DNI Wallet, and whose supervision is the responsibility of the Bank of Spain.

The General Secretariat of the Treasury and International Financing recalls that on January 20, 2023, the call to access the fifth cohort of the ‘sandbox’ was made public, setting the period for submitting applications between March 1 and April 12, 2023.

The period of prior evaluation by the supervisory authorities of the projects presented had an initial duration of one month, until May 12, 2023. However, through the resolution of May 9, 2023 of the Treasury, it was agreed to extend said term in an additional month, until June 12, 2023.

The list of projects that have received a prior favorable evaluation has now been published, although this evaluation is provisional and will not take effect until the protocol provided for in Law 7/2020 is signed.

The ‘sandbox’ is a controlled test space that allows testing innovative products, services and business models with full compliance with the legal and supervisory framework. Through it, project promoters can test their innovative solutions in a real market environment under the supervision of financial supervisors and guaranteeing maximum protection for the user of financial services.

One of these projects, the Bit2Me Security Tokens Exchange, involves the creation of a Stock Exchange where both the issuance and placement as well as the negotiation and settlement of financial instruments are allowed on a chain of blocks (blockchain).

The security tokens, to which this project refers, are non-complex shares and bonds that are financial instruments regulated by the Securities Market Law and registered in the blockchain. The development of this market infrastructure on blockchain would make it possible to benefit from efficiencies, as well as the union of issuers and investors without intermediaries with the security guarantees of Web3 and with all the regulatory guarantees and transparency and investor protection.

From now on, Bit2Me and the supervisory authorities will begin the negotiation of the test protocol, a document that includes the conditions under which these tests will be carried out. Once the protocol has been signed, the informed consent of the participants has been obtained and the guarantee system activated, the testing period will begin.