Thursday, October 16, 2025

Revolutionizing IPOs: France’s Lightning Stock Exchange Introduces Tokenized Equity Market for SMEs

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France’s new tokenized stock exchange wants to reinvent IPOs

France’s Lightning Stock Exchange (Lise) is setting out to build what it calls a fully tokenized equity marketplace for small and medium-sized enterprises, aiming to debut the first tokenized IPOs in early 2026. With a newly granted DLT trading and settlement (TSS) license from the country’s Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority (ACPR), Lise plans to merge trading and post-trade functions on a single blockchain-powered infrastructure and reshape how European IPOs are conducted.

A licensed path to tokenized listings

The DLT TSS authorization falls under the European Union’s DLT Pilot Regime, a regulatory framework designed to let market infrastructures experiment with distributed ledger technology for financial instruments governed by MiFID II. This license allows Lise to operate a market model that integrates activities typically split between multilateral trading facilities and central securities depositories. By unifying order execution, issuance, settlement, and custody in one system, Lise expects to streamline processes, reduce operational frictions, and accelerate settlement cycles.

According to the company, this approach is meant to deliver both enhanced security and lower costs for public listings—benefits that could be especially meaningful for SMEs that often find traditional IPOs too complex or expensive.

From concept to launch: 2026 and beyond

Lise emerged publicly in 2025 with the goal of fundamentally rethinking the IPO. The exchange targets the first tokenized IPO in the first quarter of 2026, following issuer onboarding and final operational testing. That debut is intended as a proof-of-concept for the model, with plans to expand to around 10 additional tokenized IPOs in 2027 if the rollout goes as expected.

Tokenized equity offerings would represent shares as digital tokens on a permissioned blockchain, allowing issuers and investors to benefit from programmability and potentially more efficient lifecycle management—corporate actions, shareholder voting, and distribution events could be handled with greater automation and transparency.

Institutional backing and market positioning

Lise is a subsidiary of Kriptown, which positions itself as a next-generation venue for startups and SMEs with a focus on digital assets. The initiative has drawn support from notable French financial institutions. Backers include major banks such as BNP Paribas and Bpifrance, reinforcing Lise’s push to introduce tokenized equity infrastructure at scale in Europe. In addition, Caceis—the asset-servicing arm of Crédit Agricole—took a minority stake in Kriptown to support Lise’s launch, describing the move as aligned with its long-term digital assets strategy and the modernization of market infrastructure.

This institutional alignment could help Lise address two persistent hurdles for digital market venues: trust and integration. By working with established banks, custodians, and service providers, the exchange aims to ensure that tokenized instruments and processes remain compatible with traditional finance workflows and regulatory expectations.

Why SMEs might benefit

Conventional IPOs can be costly and time-consuming, with multiple intermediaries and manual steps. Lise’s tokenized model seeks to simplify the path to public markets by digitizing issuance, settlement, and post-trade processes end to end. Potential advantages include:

  • Lower costs: Fewer intermediaries and more automation could reduce issuance and listing expenses.
  • Faster settlement: Blockchain-based settlement can shorten timelines and reduce counterparty risk.
  • Transparent ownership records: On-ledger registries can clarify shareholding and support efficient corporate actions.
  • Scalability for growth companies: A streamlined listing process may make public markets more accessible to SMEs.

If successful, the model could broaden access to capital markets for smaller issuers while preserving the regulatory safeguards expected in European equities trading.

A broader European shift to tokenization

Lise’s progress reflects a wider trend: the gradual tokenization of traditional securities in Europe. The DLT Pilot Regime is encouraging market participants to test how distributed ledger infrastructures can safely support regulated instruments. With a licensed framework, incumbent banks, asset servicers, and new market operators can experiment with efficiency gains while staying within supervisory oversight.

For investors, tokenized equities will feel familiar in economic terms—they’re shares with the same rights and obligations—but the market plumbing beneath them is designed to be faster, more transparent, and increasingly automated. For issuers, especially growth-stage companies, the promise is a leaner route to public capital and a modern lifecycle for listed equity.

What to watch next

Over the coming months, Lise will focus on onboarding issuers, finalizing operational readiness, and coordinating with partners across trading, custody, and compliance. The first tokenized IPO, planned for early 2026, will be a key milestone to gauge market appetite, technical robustness, and regulatory alignment. If the proof-of-concept delivers, a pipeline of additional tokenized offerings is slated to follow in 2027.

While the initiative is ambitious, the blend of regulatory authorization, institutional backing, and a targeted focus on SMEs positions Lise to test a new template for European equity markets. If the model scales, tokenized IPOs could become a practical alternative to traditional listings—bringing more companies to market and modernizing how public equity trades and settles in the EU.

Jordan Clark
Jordan Clarkhttps://www.businessorbital.com/
Jordan Clark brings a dynamic and investigative approach to business reporting. Holding a degree in Business Administration and a certification in Data Analysis, Jordan has an eye for detail and a knack for uncovering the stories behind the numbers. His career began in the bustling world of Silicon Valley startups, giving him firsthand experience in tech entrepreneurship and venture capital. Jordan's reports often focus on technology's impact on business, startup culture, and emerging

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