CommPRO Editorial Staff

New technologies often herald the emergence of a new paradigm, spearheaded by industry giants and visionaries. Today, while blockchain technology has brought about a new mechanism for transparent, decentralized transfers of digital assets, its revolutionary potential for global asset circulation is far less understood.

Under the WTO and various multilateral trade agreements, and boosted by internet adoption worldwide, consumer goods have achieved tremendous success in freely circulating around the world via trade. But the free trade of assets remains burdensome. As a simple example: consumers worldwide can easily buy iPhones at local mobile stores, but it is very difficult for investors outside the U.S. to buy a share of Apple stock. Despite hundreds of stocks and commodities exchanges around the world as well as thousands of financial institutions, exchanging assets worldwide remains highly inefficient and fragmented. This is further evident in certain jurisdictions. South Korea, for instance, a developed country of more than 50 million, tightly restricts domestic investment products via regulations, preventing broader participation in its populace and pushing them into other markets, including cryptocurrency, driving up local cryptocurrency prices—so much so that the Korean crypto market has dubbed it the “Kimchi Premium”. In other countries such as China and India, even though larger numbers of people desire to participate in asset transactions, trading barriers have greatly restricted their ability to do so.Timing is another obstacle that has plagued the market. In addition to time zone differences, major stock markets are typically only open on weekdays from 9:30 am to 4 pm. Between market close on Friday and the opening bell on Monday, investors are unable to trade on major exchanges for more than 65 hours. During holiday periods, this number could rise up to 89 hours. As a result, global stock markets are generally trading less than 20% of the time. Similarly, for forex traders, despite the norm of using high leverage trading and paying a hefty price for overnight interest, they are unable to trade after hours. These trading barriers are unable to serve the best interests of investors.55 Global Markets believes that blockchain technology can help address these inadequacies. By leveraging blockchain technology, 55 Global Markets is building a round-the-clock, transparent, low-friction, non-discriminatory trading network to unlock the potential of the global asset market. Using tokens as transaction vehicles, 55 Global Markets is reconstructing today’s asset exchange models to make transactions more transparent and efficient. 55 Global Markets aims to remove the barriers of time, nationality, currency and language, giving anyone around the world an equal opportunity to buy and sell quality assets with other participants worldwide.55 Global Markets is headquartered in Silicon Valley, and has offices in 11 countries worldwide. Currently, 55 Global Markets offers up to such asset exchanges, including for tokenized bonds, forex, premium brand products, local business services, precious metals and individual tokens. Local services may vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction depending on applicable law. Using tokenized stock as an example-55 Global Markets plans to tokenize up to 20,000 different stocks from the world's major stock markets to establish a round-the-clock, transparent, low-friction, non-discriminatory asset trading network for investors around the world. As another example, 55 Global Markets plans to tokenize all major fiat currencies allowing for round the clock trading, reducing the impact of overnight interest costs for forex traders. In addition, instead of using the traditional buy, sell and average price trading model currently used on forex exchanges, 55 Global Markets will adopt a collective auction model similar to stock exchanges, which is more investor-friendly and market-oriented. 55 Global Markets expects to continue to roll out additional innovations on a continuous basis to serve the best interests of users worldwide.55 Global Markets plans to offer global connectivity, 24/7 real-time online trading, real-time settlement of asset transactions, and ultra-low-cost transaction fees, automated legal and regulatory compliance checks, transparent transaction verification, etc.55 Global Markets is expected to provide users with access to a global asset market of, according to internal estimates, up to USD$8 trillion every day as of Q3 2018, compared to only USD$15 billion a day in the cryptopcurrency market, and is expected to provide an additional USD $1 trillion in liquidity premiums to existing assets worldwide. 55 Global Markets aims to leverage blockchain technology and tokens as vehicles to revolutionize global asset trading, revamp existing financial markets, and bring about a new era of global asset trading and liquidity.