MERJ Seychelles launches first IPO of tokenized shares

MERJ (https://merj.exchange/), the national stock exchange of the Republic of Seychelles, has announced the initial public offering (IPO) of its tokenized shares, becoming the first entity in history to do so. The offering values the 8-year old exchange at $25M.

The offering is open to investors from across the globe through the exchange’s own portal, as well as through collaborations with U.S. broker-dealer Jumpstart, U.S. custodian Prime Trust and London based blockchain provider Globacap. MERJ is issuing 1,652,893 new shares at a price of $2.42 per share, raising $4M of expansion capital. The exchange’s tokenized security uses the ethereum public blockchain whilst also being listed on MERJ’s stock exchange and denominated in U.S. dollars, providing investors a secure and familiar way to gain exposure to the growing digital asset industry.

The move comes a month after MERJ beat global competitors to become the first fully regulated stock exchange to list tokenized securities worldwide, bridging traditional financial markets with distributed ledger technology (DLT). The public offering marks a significant milestone for the emerging digital asset class.