Hype has been building for the past few months for what many believe could be crypto’s next ICO-style craze: STOs.. Replacing the unregulated frenzy of ICOs with a new wave of regulatory-compliant tokens blending elements from cryptocurrency and traditional stocks, many are predicting STOs will be big news in the very near future.

The blockchain-based marketing platform TribeOS announced the start of the FIRE STO. As one of the first federally approved STOs launched in Bermuda, the project has the attention of the entire crypto community. The news also signals a continued push by Bermudian officials to welcome more blockchain startups into their market.

Switzerland’s Stock Exchange (SIX) wants to have its own security token offering in the second half of 2019. This would coincide with the launch of its SIX Digital Exchange (SDX) platform for trading digital assets. SDX is likely to begin by offering trading in selected stocks, followed by other stocks, bonds, and potentially exchange-traded funds. Previously, the exchange has stated that SDX will enable tokenization of existing securities and other non-bankable assets.

Wyoming has become the first U.S. state to recognize cryptocurrencies as legal property and subject them to some of the rules governing fiat money. A bill titled “Digital Assets” was passed by local lawmakers in a 28-1 vote last Thursday. According to the state legislature website, the document formally classifies cryptocurrencies into three categories: digital consumer assets, digital securities, and virtual currencies.

In the first 11 months of 2018, token sales as a whole (including private sales and venture capital) totalled $23.3 billion. However, given recent volatility and bearish sentiment, the new year is set to change how the ICO market is structured, with stablecoins and security tokens gaining in prominence, and with individual investors increasingly forced to pay more attention to the long-term prospects of new projects.

IBM has completed a trial of blockchain technology to track a 28-ton shipment of mandarin oranges from China to Singapore. The main shipping document, the bill of lading, was recorded on a blockchain. This document is normally mailed to all parties involved in the shipment, including banks providing trade financing. For the pilot, IBM created an electronic bill of lading, or e-BL, which helped reduce and speed up administrative processes “to just one second”—while the standard paper-based procedure takes five to seven days.

With recent developments in the sector, the outlook for attracting crypto startups to New York may soon be brighter. “A lot has changed in blockchain, a lot has changed in cryptocurrency,” Assemblyman Clyde Vanel said. “[Previously], we only were dealing with Bitcoin. There was no Litecoin, there was no Dash, there was no Zcash… There were no utility tokens, there were no security tokens.”

When tZERO announced the commencement of trading it “buried” the fact that Dinosaur is also a digital-only challenger bank. The digital banking sector of Fintech is red hot, especially in the U.K.. Pretty much everyone understands that the bank of the future exists solely on your iPhone or Android device … except for some of the traditional banks.

Matthew Sullivan, a seasoned veteran in corporate finance, is the co-founder of a $50 million secured real estate income strategies fund, QuantumRE. Sullivan has found a way to use digital securities to access the trillions in equity sitting in U.S. homes. The best part? American homeowners can tap this equity without taking on any more debt.

The security token industry continues to gain traction in early 2019—both in the U.S. and beyond. Blockchain-based startups Zilliqa and MaiCoin have partnered to create Hg Exchange, a security token exchange in the making. The platform has revealed early plans which involve the tokenization of existing shares to include Uber, Airbnb, and Space X.

A prominent crypto economist explains how growing up in 1990s Russia shaped her belief that cryptocurrencies could one day become a multitrillion-dollar asset class. Anya Nova, with Perth-based blockchain project Power Ledger, says she experienced extreme hyperinflation during her childhood. That’s when she realized money is “a resource that the government controls—and occasionally mismanages.”

There is currently a race over which country will become the leading hub for the tokenized security sector. Although Singapore, the U.S., and Malta are some of the leaders of the pack in this regard, Thailand is also looking to enter this increasingly competitive marketplace and become a prime mover in this new cryptocurrency sector.