What happened?
France has approved Lise, the country’s first fully tokenized equity exchange, giving it a DLT TSS license under the EU’s DLT Pilot Regime. Lise merges trading and post‑trading roles (MTF and CSD) on a single distributed ledger, enabling near‑instant settlement and the potential for 24/7 trading. Backed by major banks and coordinated with French and European regulators, Lise aims to run its first on‑chain IPOs in early 2026.
Who does this affect?
This primarily helps small and mid‑cap companies that have struggled with the cost and complexity of traditional IPOs. Retail and institutional investors stand to gain more direct, on‑chain access to IPOs and secondary markets, which could widen participation and liquidity. At the same time, underwriters, custodians, exchanges, and regulators will need to adapt their business models and oversight to new tokenized settlement workflows.
Why does this matter?
It can significantly lower listing and settlement costs, speed up capital raising, and boost liquidity—especially for smaller firms—by making IPOs cheaper and trading more continuous. If Lise succeeds, France could become a European leader in tokenized securities, pushing other exchanges and financial players to accelerate tokenization and tech investment. But the move also forces tough market‑structure and regulatory questions around investor protection, custody, and corporate governance that will determine how fast and how widely tokenized markets grow.