Wallet provider Exodus Movement took in USD 75 million with its IPO. Now the EXIT shares are to land as security tokens on the Algorand blockchain.
While the boom sectors DeFi and NFT dominated the crypto space in 2020 and 2021, security tokens – one of the hottest crypto topics of 2019 – had become quite quiet in the meantime. The digital securitization of securities such as company shares, bonds or real estate is still a comparatively little used application for blockchain technology. All the louder is the bang with which the wallet provider Exodus has brought the dormant use case back to life – with the help of the Algorand smart contract platform.
Exodus tokenizes shares for $ 75 million on Algorand
In early May, Exodus Movement announced the successful completion of its “mini IPO,” which the company filed with the SEC in March Registered would have. The maximum allowable amount for the Regulation A offer was reached with 75 million US dollars. In total, over 6,800 investors took part in the Exodus IPO. The highlight: The company shares were sold via the Exodus app – and managed without any fiat money. Instead, US investors had the opportunity to purchase EXIT shares with Bitcoin, Ethereum or the stablecoin USDT.
Another novelty: there are no conventional share certificates for Exodus ordinary shares of Class A. They exist exclusively in the books of Securitize, which acts as trustee. Exodus had already stated in the SEC application that the common shares should also receive a digital, blockchain-based representation as a “common stock token”, but without specifying the platform for the future security token. It was not until June 2 that Exodus dropped the bomb: The choice did not fall on smart contract primus Ethereum, but on Algorand.
“A miracle of scalability”
Apparently, Algorand’s scalability was one of the main reasons why Exodus chose the proof-of-stake network as the future home for its security token. Exodus co-founder JP Richardson praises Algorand’s technology in the highest tones:
Exodus is delighted to be working with the Algorand team as their technology offers a rich Layer-1 with many exciting use cases to run next-generation decentralized applications for our customers. Better yet, the team built a modern marvel of Layer 1 scalability,
Richardson was quoted as saying in a press release on the Algorand partnership. Algorand COO Sean Ford adds:
Our partnership with Exodus provides world-class digital asset management and sharing on Algorand and is an important step towards broad access to the future of finance accelerated by our advanced technology.
EXIT initially listed on tZERO
The security token from Exodus will find its way into the blockchain as an ASA (Algorand Standard Asset). It will not be possible to trade the token separately from the stock. When a token is transferred, the share it represents is also transferred. The first secondary market on which the EXIT token will be tradable is the Security Token Exchange tZERO. Then investors from abroad will also be able to trade the EXIT token. Preparations for the tZERO listing are already underway and should take another two months. Until then, the EXIT rate will remain at the issue price of USD 27.42.