Deutsche Börse and Commerzbank in a joint venture have invested in 360X, a fintech firm to develop a new decentralized marketplace for tokenized real estate and the sale of NFT art. The investment by the German stock exchange operator investment come at a time when the NFT craze is at its peak and many artists and celebrities have made a fortune selling their art in the form of an NFT. The most noticeable being Beeple’s digital art selling for over $69 million.

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The fintech partner 360X would focus on supporting art and real estate in the initial stages and is expected to add more domains as the platform grows further. The first transaction on the platform is expected to debut later this year. Deutsche Börse bought a 50% stake in the fintech firm for €10 million while Commerzbank holds a significantly lower stake.

Theodor Weimer, CEO of Deutsche Börse AG, said,

“I am convinced that Deutsche Börse has to venture into new asset classes, In the future, we will see 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.”

Deutsche Borse and Commerzbank Started Experimenting With Blockchain in 2019

The latest investment by Deutsche Borse and Commerzbank in developing a decentralized marketplace won’t be their first decentralized venture as both the firms have been jointly experimenting with blockchain technology since 2019. The firm had executed a joint transaction using distributed ledger technology a couple of years ago.

The rising interest of mainstream financial giants in blockchain technology can also be attributed to the progressive stance of the native regulatory body BaFin. The German regulator like many of its European counterparts is working towards a native sovereign currency, and most recently it invited banks and other financial startups to obtain a custody license for holding cryptocurrencies.

About Author

An engineering graduate, Prashant focuses on UK and Indian markets. As a crypto-journalist, his interests lie in blockchain technology adoption across emerging economies.