ICE Makes Additional Investment in tZERO and Agrees to Patent License; NYSE Tokenized Securities Platform Not Yet Launched

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), and blockchain financial infrastructure firm tZERO said on August 31 local time that they had signed a memorandum of understanding to design market infrastructure for tokenized securities. tZERO will take part as one of the principal design partners for a digital transfer agent and broker-dealer framework that will support on-chain settlement on the NYSE-linked digital trading platform ICE is developing. A transfer agent is the entity that maintains the official records of securities holders and manages ownership transfers and corporate actions. In March, NYSE had named Securitize as a principal design partner and designated it as the first digital transfer agent qualified to issue blockchain-native securities for corporate and exchange-traded fund (ETF) issuers. Securitize's final approved status on the platform, however, is also conditional on meeting the relevant requirements. ICE had already made a strategic investment in tZERO in 2022, becoming a minority shareholder, and this time it participated further in a recent funding round while also agreeing to a license allowing it to use 23 patent families and 103 blockchain patents on the platform and for other purposes. The investment amount was not disclosed. The two companies will also examine ways to use assets tokenized by tZERO in collateral management at ICE clearing houses and affiliates. tZERO's subsidiary tZERO Transfer Services is already a transfer agent registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Still, for tZERO to obtain approved digital transfer agent and subscriber status on this platform, it must meet regulatory, technical and operational requirements. The NYSE-linked platform is currently under development, has not yet launched, and regulatory approval remains outstanding. The current stage is therefore not live trading operations but a memorandum of understanding along with investment and patent license agreements.