AMINA has announced that it joined the 21X ecosystem as a listing sponsor, becoming the first regulated bank to participate in the European Union’s first fully regulated distributed ledger technology trading and settlement system.
The move links regulated asset custody, tokenisation infrastructure and a blockchain-based trading venue into a single operational framework for tokenised financial instruments.
21X operates under authorization from Germany’s financial market regulator BaFin with oversight from the European Securities and Markets Authority as part of the European Union’s DLT Pilot Regime. The system allows tokenised financial instruments to trade and settle directly on distributed ledger infrastructure.
AMINA’s participation introduces a banking partner capable of supporting issuers that seek to bring tokenised securities onto the venue.
Three-Layer Infrastructure for Tokenised Assets
The partnership links three infrastructure layers that together support the issuance, custody, trading and settlement of tokenised financial instruments.
AMINA will provide custody and banking services for the underlying assets that are represented onchain. These assets include government bonds, corporate securities, treasury bills and other financial instruments held in traditional financial markets.
Tokeny will supply the tokenisation technology used to create blockchain representations of those assets. The platform supports smart contract deployment and compliance controls through the ERC-3643 token standard.
21X provides the regulated venue where the tokenised instruments can trade. The platform enables primary issuance and secondary market activity through smart contract-based matching and settlement.
The structure allows tokenised assets to move from traditional custody to blockchain issuance and finally into a regulated trading environment where investors can buy and sell the instruments.
The arrangement addresses a long-standing challenge within tokenisation initiatives: connecting traditional financial assets with regulated secondary markets.
Institutional Tokenisation Expands
The partnership arrives during a period of rising activity around tokenised real-world assets.
Assets represented onchain grew from approximately five billion dollars in 2022 to more than twenty four billion dollars by mid-2025. Estimates suggest the figure could exceed thirty eight billion dollars by the end of the year.
If stablecoins are included in the calculation, the total value of tokenised assets exceeds three hundred thirty billion dollars.
Financial institutions have conducted pilot programmes for several years, but recent infrastructure developments have moved the sector closer to operational deployment.
Tokenised government bonds, money market instruments and corporate securities have attracted attention from asset managers and banks that seek faster settlement cycles and programmable compliance features.
However, the absence of regulated secondary markets has limited adoption among institutional investors. Many firms have been reluctant to participate until systems exist that match the governance and compliance standards of traditional capital markets.
The 21X trading venue is designed to address that issue by operating under a regulatory framework that allows tokenised securities to trade within the European Union.
Executives Point to Institutional Infrastructure
Executives involved in the initiative stated that the new structure provides a pathway from traditional asset custody to onchain markets.
Myles Harrison, Chief Product Officer at AMINA, commented, “Institutional investors have rightly waited for tokenisation infrastructure that meets their governance and compliance standards. By partnering with 21X and building on our collaboration with Tokeny, we’ve assembled the complete infrastructure — from banking custody of underlying assets through to onchain issuance and exchange trading. For institutions looking to access tokenised securities, this is the pathway they’ve been waiting for.”
The statement pointed to the need for regulated infrastructure before large institutional investors enter tokenised markets.
Max J. Heinzle, CEO of 21X, commented on the addition of the Swiss bank to the platform.
Max J. Heinzle, CEO of 21X, commented, “We are proud to welcome AMINA to the 21X ecosystem as a premier listing sponsor. With our secondary market now fully operational, the addition of a world-class institutional partner like AMINA is a significant milestone. The Swiss bank’s heritage and pioneering work in digital assets provide the exact blend of rigour and innovation required to scale our platform. Together, we are making the trading and settlement of tokenised equities, bonds, and funds a seamless reality for the global financial community.”
The comments followed the launch of the 21X trading venue in September 2025, when the platform began operating as a regulated blockchain-based trading and settlement system for tokenised securities.
DLT Market Infrastructure Takes Shape in Europe
21X operates as part of Europe’s broader regulatory experiment with distributed ledger market infrastructure.
The European Union introduced the DLT Pilot Regime to allow financial market participants to operate trading and settlement systems based on blockchain technology under controlled regulatory conditions.
Under this framework, exchanges and settlement venues can operate systems where financial instruments exist natively on distributed ledgers rather than within traditional central securities depositories.
21X’s platform processes issuance, trading and settlement through smart contracts, allowing transactions to complete without separate clearing and settlement intermediaries.
The system currently runs on the Polygon blockchain and the Stellar network.
The platform also integrates services from partners including Chainlink, Circle and SBI Digital Markets, which support price feeds, settlement infrastructure and market connectivity.
Atomic settlement is a central component of the system. In such transactions, delivery of the security and payment occur simultaneously onchain.
This structure removes counterparty settlement risk that can occur when trades settle days after execution in traditional markets.
Role of Listing Sponsors in Tokenised Markets
Within the 21X ecosystem, listing sponsors guide issuers that plan to bring tokenised securities to the platform.
The role includes assisting issuers with regulatory requirements, onboarding processes and technical preparation for tokenised issuance.
Listing sponsors also act as intermediaries between issuers and the trading venue, helping structure the tokenised financial instruments that will be listed on the exchange.
AMINA’s experience in digital asset custody and tokenised asset services places the bank in a position to support issuers that seek to connect traditional securities with blockchain infrastructure.
The bank received a Swiss banking licence from FINMA in 2019 and later expanded operations into other jurisdictions including Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong and the European Union.
Its involvement in digital asset custody and tokenisation initiatives forms part of a broader trend in which regulated financial institutions begin to participate directly in blockchain-based capital markets infrastructure.
Large financial institutions have increased investment in tokenisation platforms in recent years as regulators introduce frameworks that permit such systems to operate alongside traditional markets.
Europe has become one of the regions where these experiments are progressing through formal regulatory programmes rather than informal pilot initiatives.
As more infrastructure components come online, market participants will be able to assess whether tokenised securities markets can attract meaningful trading volumes.
Key factors include liquidity, investor participation and regulatory acceptance across multiple jurisdictions.
The participation of regulated banks and infrastructure providers may play a role in determining whether tokenised markets develop beyond early-stage adoption.
