San Francisco-based security token issuance platform Securitize has raised more than $12 million to date. It has created the digital securities protocol, designed for the life-cycle management of security tokens… And now, Securitize has joined Hyperledger, the open source collaborative effort that aims to advance cross-industry blockchain technologies.

In financial markets, the early stage investors are sophisticated enough to be able to take significant risk for large rewards… and wealthy enough to be able to meet high minimum investments associated with private markets. Ultimately, the capital markets want to broaden participation to benefit smaller investors and smaller cap companies.

Decentralized financial contracts platform Universal Market Access (UMA) has announced the launch of a tokenized version of the stock market. Through USStocks, an ERC-20 token, UMA will enable individuals to become partial owners of the largest 500 companies in U.S. financial markets.

A crypto company has launched a new product that focuses on the tokenization of real-world assets, such as property, art and commodities—a venture it believes will transform the way the world invests, trades and transfers value. The service will provide “all the tools needed to tokenize assets into security tokens,” including legal and technical expertise as well as sales and marketing strategies.

Real estate development company CurveBlock uses blockchain and security tokens to share profits with investors. It just announced it’s the first security token company in the UK to be accepted into a commercial bank accelerator program, which reflects the paradigm shift in today's banking industry and the financial shifts taking place in this digital age.

A striking trend in mining finance has been the emergence of crypto tokens as a form of funding.This tokenized financing is based on the intrinsic value of a mineral deposit or its production, with the tokens distributed via STOs. Once these tokens have been issued, they can be listed on third party exchanges to facilitate trading and liquidity.

Despite the digital securities sector’s rapid development, with ongoing global acceptance being witnessed, China has taken a firm stance against the industry. This comes in stark contrast to the nation’s past acceptance of blockchain technology. as China has been noted to have implemented blockchain in various industries ranging from mobility to supply chain management.

It’s been more than 10 years since blockchain was introduced in Satoshi’s famed white paper. Since then, it’s expanded far beyond cryptocurrencies—with IBM, Oracle, Amazon, and other multibillion-dollar companies trying to capitalize on the disruptive technology. From the internet-of-things (IoT) convergence to startups for the unbanked… find out what major blockchain trends will define the current year.

While there’s a growing body of work documenting this emerging industry, there’s still a fundamental asymmetry of information in the security token space… and public knowledge is still quite limited. In an effort to inform the public and industry partners, global consulting firm PwC has released a report—with the help of Swiss Crypto Valley Association—which analyzes the state of STOs and ICOs.

Early Bitcoin adopter Brock Pierce predicts that security tokens will give birth to a quadrillion dollar market, and we’ll see the further tokenization of the world’s fiat money, debt market, real estate, equities, and art. He also said, “STOs are designed for investors and can have many provisions that are there to protect market participants.”

The end-to-end comprehensive platform for tokenization will arrange real world assets into several fractional ownerships using blockchain technology. This will give investors a digital marketplace for investment that is secure, transparent and inclusive. It’s strictly P2P—no middleman is involved, and the market is always up and running as it operates 24/7.

At TOKEN2049, DX.Exchange CEO Daniel Skowronski announced the exchange would be launching its own digital security, to be called “In Good We Trust” (IGWT). This will allow investors to see first hand the many benefits of a digital security… including financial savings, security, efficiency, and liquidity.