Tokenized Image Rights, SEC Charges, and Strategic Partnerships – Digital Securities Weekly

Tokenized Image Rights

One of the reasons digital securities are so intriguing, are the countless asset classes which can be monetized through tokenization.  With this in mind, Tokeny has recently announced a partnership with Tokenchampions, which will see the image rights to high-profile athletes tokenized and sold through an investment fund.

Beyond opening up opportunities in previously inaccessible or niche asset classes, digital securities also open the door to smaller investors due to the ability to purchase/sell fractionalized shares.

Interestingly, Tokenchampions indicates that it will not only tokenize image rights, but in an effort to ensure hearty returns to its investors, it will work diligently to cultivate a lucrative career path for participating athletes.

This entire process is facilitated by digital security specialists, Tokeny.  Luc Falempin, CEO of Tokeny commented on this partnership, stating,

“The Tokenchampions team is a pioneer in using tokenization to make football investment more accessible and liquid for a wider range of investors. By providing them with a compliant infrastructure, we bridge the technology gap and enable them to concentrate on their core business. Our end-to-end tokenization platform helps them to achieve rapid onboarding of investors, cost-efficient management, and rapid transfer of securities in a compliant manner.”

While this offering may seem quite niche at first, it will be interesting to keep an eye on.  In the past year, the sporting world and blockchain based endeavours have merged on various occasions.  From NFTs of athletes, players receiving salaries in crypto, to the renaming of arenas – it is clear that a mutual interest is there.  Only time will tell which avenues will be profitable.

Latvian Citizen Charged by SEC

Any time there is excitement over a product or thriving industry, there will be bad actors looking to take advantage of the unsuspecting.  Ivars Auzins of Latvia recently played this role well, essentially stealing at least $7 million from scores of investors.  Thankfully, the SEC has now announced that it has charged Auzins with a litany of crimes surrounding the theft.

The SEC describes the theft as occurring over the course of two digital asset securities offerings which took place between January of 2018 and July of 2019.  In each instance, Auzins sold digital securities under the guise of an ICO, only to misappropriate and abscond with the funds.

The SEC states that it has charged Auzins with, “violating the antifraud and registration provisions of the federal securities laws, and seeks permanent injunctions, including conduct-based injunctions, disgorgement plus prejudgment interest, civil penalties, and an officer-and-director bar against him.”

Archax Partners with Crowdfunding Platform ‘Launchpool’

When it finally launches, Archax appears poised to benefit from yet another strategic partnership.  This time, it is none other than ‘Launchpool’.  Functioning as a ‘token-based community crowdfunding platform’, this partnership will not only allow for Launchpool to raise capital through the sale of digital securities on Archax’s upcoming exchange, but for crowdfunding projects on its platform to do the same.

Launchpool CEO, Richard Simpson, states,

“This partnership will not only offer new options for Launchpool’s community, it will also open up new investment opportunities for Archax’s investor community by providing access to token based projects in a regulated way. We believe that this partnership will also create strong synergies between the product offerings of both Launchpool and Archax.”

Archax in particular has caught our attention as of late, taking various steps towards its nearing launch.  Beyond the partnership described above, Archax has also established Montis Digital, and partnered with Scila for its KYC/AML needs.