Germany Approves Its First Security Token Offering
The German financial market regulator, BaFin, has just approved its first STO in February, 2019: During Bitcoin Wednesday on 6 March 2019, Bitbond CFO Michael Pinkus will present it, the Bitbond token offering, a cryptocurrency on the Stellar distributed ledger.
The tokenized debt of small- and medium-sized enterprises is set to go on sale — with the German government’s authorization — via Bitbond’s online lending platform on 11 March, 2019. At the conclusion of the STO on 10 May, 2019, the tokens will be distributed to investors. Immediately thereafter they will be tradeable via the StellarX decentralized exchange that is integrated with the Stellar network. The crypto-bonds will reach maturity in 10 years and will payout 1% per quarter on capital invested (4 times per year) plus an annual payout amounting to 60% of the loan portfolio’s profits each year. The token sale is open to anyone anywhere in the world with Bitcoin, Ethereum, Stellar and Euro, except for citizens of the U.S. and Canada.
Bitbond’s Michael Pinkus has worked in international banking and finance for over 19 years and has extensive experience with structured finance, asset management and private debt. He’s held senior roles in structuring, sales and business development. Before working for Bitbond he handled the launch of Scope Group’s investor relationship management department, serving more than 300 institutional investors. He has spent a substantial amount of his career with IKB, a prominent European bank specialized in serving small- and medium-sized enterprises. He has successfully arranged for funding for banks, asset managers and funds, has led a loan syndication desk, executed several SME securitization transactions and worked as a credit portfolio manager. He has also supported the fundraising and launch of a direct lending platform and advised institutional investors about the marketplace and its alternative lenders. He has an LLM degree in banking and finance from the University of London.