Bullish, an institutionally focused digital asset platform, has received regulatory approval from the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission (GFSC) to offer trading in tokenized securities. The landmark decision positions Bullish among the first regulated venues globally to support issuer-sponsored tokenized securities within a dedicated legal framework for distributed ledger technology (DLT).
The approval allows Bullish to expand beyond crypto-assets into blockchain-based representations of traditional financial instruments such as stocks, bonds, and fund interests. Trading is expected to begin in the coming weeks, subject to final pre-launch conditions, and will initially be available to eligible non-U.S. investors. The GFSC authorization is a key step in Bullish’s strategy to build an end-to-end institutional infrastructure covering issuance, shareholder record keeping, custody, and secondary trading.
Tom Farley, CEO of Bullish Group, commented: “Gibraltar has once again shown how thoughtful regulation can unlock innovation. This approval allows us to bring the benefits of tokenization to securities markets within a robust, supervised framework, and continues the work we began with the GFSC to set a global standard for regulated digital asset markets.”
Gibraltar’s Minister for Financial Services, Nigel Feetham, added that the jurisdiction remains committed to leading regulated financial innovation, reinforcing its reputation as a quality financial centre. The approval builds on a partnership between Bullish and the GFSC that began in 2025.
Tokenized securities use blockchain to record ownership of regulated assets, potentially improving settlement efficiency, enabling 24/7 trading, reducing costs, and simplifying record keeping. Bullish’s model integrates these benefits while preserving existing investor protections and oversight.
The regulatory nod aligns with Bullish’s planned acquisition of Equiniti (EQ), a major transfer agent serving nearly 3,000 issuer clients and over 20 million shareholders. Once completed, the deal will combine issuer record keeping, shareholder registries, blockchain infrastructure, and secondary trading within a single institutional platform, closing the loop on the full securities lifecycle.
This development underscores growing competition among digital asset infrastructure providers to become regulated venues for both crypto and tokenized traditional assets, as tokenization moves closer to mainstream capital markets.
