In a recent interview,
former Visa executive Roel Wolfert discussed his thoughts on the security token
industry. Wolfert remains convinced of the significant potential anticipated for
security tokens, but not before a few necessary developments fall into place.
How Security
Tokens Have Huge Potential, but Need Further Development
Security
tokens have been around since 2017. The world’s first security token, SPiCE
VC, underwent the first compliant
peer-to-peer transfer on a public blockchain in 2018.
Now, in 2019, the highly anticipated space continues to advance,
but unarguably remains in an early stage of development.
So far, an estimated 64 Security Token Offerings (STOs) have
been conducted, which accumulatively raised nearly
$1 billion.
There are certainly some benefits to an STO. Wolfert says
one of them is holding entities who raise funds, accountable. “There’s a lot of
obligation. There’s no easy money— you can’t just disappear anymore.”
But the benefits don’t just apply to investors. According to
Wolfert,
“…there’s huge potential in STOs. Rather than getting some quick money in to grow your business–it’s a marketing opportunity, it’s a communications and loyalty opportunity, as well as a great financial construct to clean up [a company’s] balance sheet and take control of your growth.”
Yet, as many
in the nascent space realize, certain aspects are currently lacking. For
example, added liquidity is one of the many touted advantages that security
tokens bring to capital markets. But additional developments are needed for
this benefit to become available. Wolfert
says,
“I think they haven’t reached their full potential yet, definitely. There is very limited secondary market trading–so, from a tradability or an exchangeability aspect, I think there’s a lot to be gained.”
Another area
which requires attention is a clear regulatory framework, especially concerning
international transactions. According to Wolfert,
“International regulation from the EU [makes it] pretty clear how to deal with it. But then you still have people from the US buying security tokens from European companies in Europe–how will that be sorted out with the SEC, and that sort of thing?”
Overall, Wolfert
is certainly optimistic. But there are definitely some aspects of the emerging
technology that simply need to be hashed out:
“There are a lot of problems to be solved–or opportunities to be taken, so to speak. So, we’re not there yet, definitely. We need to get more clarity about how much you can raise, what the conditions are in which you can raise…the amount of money for retail investors versus business investors, or commercial and professional investors.”
What
do you think of Wolfert’s thoughts on the security token industry? Let us know
what you think in the comments section below.
Image
courtesy of CoinRivet.
The post Former Visa Executive: “There’s Huge Potential in STOs” appeared first on The Tokenist.
