Bullish amongst first globally to offer tokenised securities after Gibraltar approval

Digital asset platform Bullish has become one of the first companies to offer tokenised securities after receiving approval from Gibraltar regulators, CEO Tom Farley announced at a fireside chat at the Sunborn on Monday morning.

Mr Farley was interviewed by Chapter Director of Startup Grind Gibraltar Denise Matthews during a packed session, which was opened by the Minister for Justice, Trade and Industry, Nigel Feetham.

Tokenized securities are financial assets such as stocks that are converted into digital tokens and recorded on the blockchain.

“You can get a dividend,” Mr Farley, the former CEO of the New York Stock Exchange, said.

“You can vote that particular share, much like as if you held a certificated share or a traditional book entry share that you hold today.”

Bullish said the approval would allow it to offer trading in tokenised securities within Gibraltar's regulatory framework, with trading expected to begin in the coming weeks, subject to pre-launch conditions.

"Gibraltar has once again shown how thoughtful regulation can unlock innovation,” Mr Farley said.

"This approval allows us to bring the benefits of tokenization to securities markets within a robust, supervised framework, and continues the work we began with the GFSC to set a global standard for regulated digital asset markets."

Mr Feetham said the approval reinforced Gibraltar's strategy of supporting innovation while maintaining regulatory standards.

"Gibraltar is committed to being at the forefront of regulated innovation in financial services," he added.

"We are pleased to deepen our relationship with Bullish and to support the responsible development of tokenised securities, reinforcing Gibraltar's reputation as a quality financial centre."

Bullish has entered the market as one of the first companies to tap into the global securities market which Mr Farley said is worth around $300 trillion, in comparison to the cryptocurrency market which is worth around $3 trillion.

Mr Farley pointed to the company’s positive relationship locally and with regulators.

He said that his desire is to build Bullish’s business in Gibraltar “in big ways in the years to come”, adding the move to set up Bullish in Gibraltar in 2021 was “a home run decision”.

He said that politically, Gibraltar had not shifted in its view of regulation unlike other jurisdictions and that the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission was “tough but fair” and clear in its communication.

Mr Farley said when Bullish launched, the plan was to have a heavily regulated, trusted and compliant company outside the US, where no other entity existed.

He added companies regulated by other jurisdictions had flaunted regulations and violated laws, but Gibraltar was “run like a tight ship”.

Mr Farley said Gibraltar’s stature in the “financial scene” has risen significantly since its removal from the FATF grey list.

“In the time that I've been here, I've seen the professionalism increase in the way Gibraltar operates internally and it presents itself to the world. I've seen that be recognised by removal from the FATF grey list,” he said.

“I've seen the world start to wake up to wow, this is a really great locale again, with good strong regulations, with really great people in situ, and no longer attached to this kind of grey list reputation damage.”

“And so I expect more of the same on the back of everything that's happened, but also the improved economy over the last several years, what appears to be the great negotiation around Brexit and the border.”

Mr Farley said Bullish services heavily-regulated companies such as PayPal and those firms were “very careful” about doing business with them because Gibraltar was on the grey list.

“That grey list was a big, big X for them,” he said.

Gibraltar was struck off the list in February 2024 and Mr Farley said this has resulted in businesses working with Bullish when they previously would not consider it.

He added that the treaty means it will be easier for Bullish to recruit new employees to move to Gibraltar.

Mr Farley highlighted how the company has grown over the years and started in blockchain technology in 2013, when he had made a $10 million investment into this “tiny pre-revenue company called Coinbase.”

“We ended up making $1.5 billion out of the $10 million, but it was coincidence,” he said.

“What we really were after was we wanted a seat at the table because we believed in the profound potential of blockchain technology to create a layer of programmable finance that would ultimately displace the way business operated.”

Mr Farley said he believed institutions would rush in and see that programmable finance would create more efficient finance with an immutable audit trail.

“We were wrong. Institutions did not come,” he said.

“In fact, a lot of things did come that I'm not terribly proud of. Frauds, grifts, people going to jail. There was a moment in 2021 when I came this close to stepping away from Bullish and from crypto.”

“You had the CEO of FTX in jail. You had the CEO of Binance going to jail. You had the CEOs of Three Arrows literally on the run.”

“You had the CEO of Celsius going to jail. You had no institutions anywhere to speak of.”

“Instead, it became this corner of finance looking to rip off the everyday retail trader by selling them some frog coin or monkey drawing or fart coin or something preposterous.”

This, for Mr Farley, highlighted the need for tough regulation in the sector, which Bullish found in Gibraltar.