Zilliqa and MaiCoin Partner on Launch of Southeast Asia’s First Security Token Exchange

Singapore-based blockchain technology developer Zilliqa has partnered with Taiwan-based token exchange MaiCoin to launch Hg Exchange, Southeast Asia’s first security tokens exchange for trading digital securities issued by privately-held companies.

The joint venture, announced via a January 25th press release, aims to create a gateway through which institutional and accredited investors can buy into Southeast Asia’s “decacorns,” privately-held companies with valuations over $10 billion, including Didi Chuxing, Garena, Grab, Go-JEK, and Traveloka. The idea is to replicate the success of Nasdaq Private Market for Southeast Asia. Non-accredited investors would eventually be allowed to participate.

What is Zilliqa?

Zilliqa core product is a public blockchain that uses sharding to scale high-throughput transaction volumes. Hg Exchange will use the Zilliqa blockchain for security token issuance and trading. Zilliqa is currently moving its blockchain network from testnet to mainnet.

Zilliqa CEO Xinshu Dong said about the joint venture with MiaCoin, “Hg Exchange is a prime example of how Zilliqa is collaborating with leading industry partners to enable new and innovative use cases that disrupt and advance traditional sectors.”

What is MiaCoin?

MiaCoin is Taiwan's leading token exchange. It is tasked with building an intuitive and secure frontend for Hg Exchange for its matching engine and order book, and with providing security in the form of multi-factor authentication and transaction signing functionalities ported over from the software used for its existing token exchange.

MaiCoin CEO Alex Lie said about the joint venture with Zilliqa, “The intersection of blockchain technology with traditional asset classes such as private equity promises to globalize and liquefy previously illiquid assets.”

There is a memorandum of intent between MaiCoin and the four companies that will become the first investor members of the exchange — Phillip Securities, PrimePartners, RHT Capital, and Fundnel.

Regulatory green lighting

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is expected to quickly approve Hg Exchange as a FinTech Regulatory Sandbox, which would open the door to making the exchange a regulated security token issuance and trading platform.

MAS notes in the section of its website covering its sanctioning of sandboxes, “The regulatory sandbox will enable FinTech players to experiment with innovative financial products or services in the production environment but within a well-defined space and duration. MAS will provide the appropriate regulatory support by relaxing specific legal and regulatory requirements.”