tZERO, the blockchain investment arm of Medici Ventures, itself a subsidiary of Overstock.com (OSTK.Q), achieved several records in August recording its strongest month ever, suggesting that maybe tZERO’s onto something lucrative with their secondary securities market investment platform.
More specifically, their subsidiary tZERO ATS traded over 2.3 million digital securities, which represents a 2,100% increase over their tally from the previous year. The dollar amount attached to that number is over $22 million in securities, which beat their previous record of $7.6 million set in July. Year to date through August, the volume traded on ATS has increased by over 300% compared to the previous year, and the total dollar amount for the same period got a 684% boost.
“In addition to delivering record trading volume on the tZERO ATS in August, the St. Regis Aspen (ASPD) digital security began trading. The tZERO Crypto app also added over a thousand new users last month. These wins, coupled with FINRA’s approval of tZERO Markets, are exciting, and we look forward to offering our crypto customers the opportunity to open brokerage accounts at tZERO Markets. Overall, our recent accomplishments underscore the investor demand for digital assets,” said Saum Noursalehi, CEO of tZERO.
tZERO is a secondary market and blockchain ecosystem that allows trading in investment markets traditionally thought to be illiquid. These types of investments, like private equity in large private firms or commercial real estate to name two, provide investors with limited options for secondary liquidity. Private firms focus on fundraising campaigns that remain exclusive to accredited investors, defined of course as having over $1 million in liquid assets. These events are called private Series A funding rounds, and they’re not available for most investors.
When an investor finds a secondary trading platform they immediately discover that the process is both slow and expensive. This type of investment also lacks transparency when compared to the traditional route, which is why investors generally distrust going this route. tZERO’s aims is to regain this trust through an open blockchain based approach, taking advantage of blockchain’s trustless infrastructure to provide some needed accountability to this largely opaque market.
Patrick Byrne, former Overstock.com and tZERO CEO, set it up to provide users with the ability to no longer need to rely on traditional institutional market structures, but instead offer a new type of trading platform based on cryptographically-secured decentralized ledgers that provide enhanced market integrity.
“Today’s announcement is an important milestone and further advances our vision of creating the most robust and innovative marketplace for private assets. Through tZERO Markets, we will establish a direct relationship with our customers, while also offering a streamlined experience for onboarding and trading digital securities,” said Noursalehi.
Previously, folks involved in crypto had to go to somewhat sketchy alternatives for fundraising options, including coin offerings. Now rather than take your chances with shady looking hype-machines offering cut-rate badly coded coins in exchange for cash, which they may end up charging out and spending on lambos and coke, potential investors dealing with tZERO can enjoy the same protections as the everyday investor.
“From digitizing a private company’s ownership records to trading through an institutional-grade order-management system, tZERO has built an end-to-end ecosystem that democratizes access to private assets,” said Noursalehi.
And why not?
Private markets, including a range of asset types and issuers, like growth-stage companies, real estate and funds, are swiftly becoming a critical part of capital formation. tZERO is providing access to additional investment opportunities for investors that would otherwise not have access to private securities trading.
—Joseph Morton
