Commerzbank, Deutsche Börse Team Up for Tokenized Real Estate and Art Marketplace

Two cornerstones of the German financial landscape, Deutsche Börse and Commerzbank, are working together to create a blockchain-based marketplace for real estate and art.

Deutsche Börse and Commerzbank will work with fintech firm 360X to build a digital asset marketplace with the first reference transaction (minimum viable product) for each tokenized asset class planned for later this year, the companies said Thursday.

Blockchains and tokenization promise untold liquidity for assets like real estate and art, which is what these large financial firms are aiming for here.

Germany is becoming a powerful contender in the digital asset race, with its regulator BaFin inviting banks and startups to apply for special licenses to hold cryptocurrency for interested clients. Both Deutsche Börse and Commerzbank have been working on blockchain pilot projects for the last several years.

“I am convinced that Deutsche Börse has to venture into new asset classes,” Theodor Weimer, CEO of Deutsche Börse AG, said in a statement. “In the future, we will see a broad tokenization and digitization of assets that are not tradable today. 360X is the new innovative platform for serial marketplace creation that we are building with our partners.”

Commerzbank has many years of experience with distributed ledger technology, said CEO Manfred Knof, citing pilot transactions in the areas of payments, securities and trade finance, as well as strategic partnerships with technology and internet companies.

“We take real assets to digital marketplaces. With our and Deutsche Börse’s investment in 360X, we see the potential to actively shape one of these digital asset ecosystems of the future,” Knof said in the statement.